Gangreen on Wednesday
by robacsam
Summary: "You ask why I take care of these boys? That's right, because someone has to. And it's not an easy job taking care of children, making sure they're not getting into trouble, watching out for their well-being. But you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?...Didn't think so. Let's go, boys. Time to go home."- Jack Wednesday, set after "Schoolhouse Rocked". PLEASE REVIEW!
1. Chapter 1

A square man in a no nonsense gray trench coat and fedora walking your way down the street was nothing to sneeze at. Even more so when you take in the fact that the Gangreen Gang was closely behind him. But none of them had their normal smug, snake-like looks of planned evil for the man. Each one was battered and bruised to a point: Ace was silently bemoaning the damage done to his trademark shades, Grubber had more bends to him than normal, Big Billy was a little sore, even Arturo, and Snake were sure something was ingured. No one spoke a word as Jack Wednesday, truant office, lead them from the local preschools parking lot to a car just as square and gray as he was.

"Sandford, you're sitting up front." Spoke gary man in a rapid, but monotone, no nonsense voice.

"Uh-it's-" Snake went to correct, normally his friends woild laugh at his name, but Jack had them all quiet.

"I didn't ask what you perfered to be called," he turned around and leaned in close to the boys, easily intimidateding them all with their prides still hurt "you will be addressed by your legal name only, the ones on your birth records-those who have them- from now on and you punks will answer to them. Now Sandford, front seat. The one next to the steering wheel."

Without a single complaint, Snake slithered past the man and into the front seat as the other four found ways to fit in the back seat. Ace's legs were almost to his chin, Bobby took up two seats, to Arturo had to sit on Grubber, Mr. Wednesday watched them as he fixed his mirrors.

"Seatbelts, boys. We're going home."

"Oh,- we live-"

"I was not asking for your home addresses, Ace. I was telling you boys to put your seat belts on as it is very clear raising yourselfs has not lead to an ideal situation for anyone, as I said, we are going home. We will eat a balanced meal consisting for at least four basic food groups, and figure out whst to do about farthering your education."

"Pffft."

"The four basic food groups dose not refer to pizza, Grubber. You boys will learn that, come hell or high water." Jack said ss he put the car in drive and sped off, being sure to do the speed limit.


	2. Chapter 2

A car ride had never felt so long, awkward and quiet. Once in a while the boys would exchange looks, or look to Ace. But the oldest of the green-skinned gang never glanced back, or even moved his head from the headrest and staring up at the ceiling. He didn't even seemed bothered by his black locks in his eyes instead of their normal brushed to the side or back where he liked them. Once in a while, Big Billy or Lil' Arturo would dare risk it and poke him to make sure he was still awake, just in case one of those dodge balls did some damage to his brain. But really, this happened a few times before: it was like broken shades made for a broken Ace. At least until he could get a hold of a new or spare pair from his stash at the dump.

In the front seat, Snake fidgeted quietly for a few minutes, drumming the ends of his cushion a few times as he eyes wandered around. Wednesday would glance at him if his eyes fell on the man, so he quickly looked away from that. With his eyes up front again they fell on the radio in seconds. He was the only one in the car with a smile across his all-too-long face.

The car almost jumped off the road at the high volume and quickness that loud rock music filled the small space. Seat-belts or not the passage joined in the jump and some even kept jumping, enjoying the tunes and the level they were being played at. Snake, on the other hand,didn't even get a second to sit back and enjoy as he found he was scolded in unison but Mr. Wednesday and Ace:  
"Turn that down or off-"  
"Turn that carp off-"  
and even then Snake heard none of it over the music, what got him to obey was a hard smack to the back of his head from the backseat. When the radio clicked off, there was still noise going on as Arturo and Grubber spent an extra few seconds head-banging and or humming alone, seemingly deaf to the fact that the song had stopped. Grubber came to figure it out and second before and gripped Arturo's head.  
"Eh?" He looked around, and his eyes landed in the mirror as those square, unhappy eyes looked back at him, Arutro was quick to fold his hands into his lap instead of out and making an "you rock" or other symbols with his hands. "Eh-eh-eh- we okay?"

Aside for Billy making a few uneasy whimpers from the tension and being stuck in such a tiny car, everyone else held their breath as Mr. Wednesday, never taking his eyes off the road, and using the mirror to look back at them, slowly and safely pulled over to the shoulder as busy traffic sped by.

"It seems you boys have gone undisciplined for a while, and I was hoping to survive the car ride before any rules were set in stone. That radio stunt could've distracted me worse and we could all be on the side of the road, and spread across some other punks windshield. Which implies what?"  
Billy really thought about it for a second, but wasn't sure what 'implied' meant, Snake tried to answer but he didn't even open his mouth before the man went on.  
"That's right, at least half of us would be roadkill or at least badly injured- seeing as you boys are already injured from those super-powered-princesses and their teachers' little game, I doubt you'd want more injuries today. Speaking of injuries, Ace-" He turned his mirror just a bit back to the oldest, who now sat straight-up with his hands between his knees and his eyes clearly wide as his bent sunglasses rested folded and hooked onto the neckline of his shirt.

"I was only-" He still tried to turn on his charm, but the man went on.  
"-If you touch Sanford or the other boys like that again, you won't be happy with what I'm going to do. Because you need to learn-"  
Ace had heard this before, plenty of times from a number of those annoying reasonable adults, and as the man went on and on and Ace stopped listening, his mind tried telling himself this guy was bluffing like the others. Push him far enough and he wouldn't do a thing but yell. He knew it had to be a bluff. But then again, no one told his heart rate that as the eyes stared him down and him alone. He felt things slow down a little as his heart-rate picked up. He wasn't even facing the backseat and it had Ace in this state. He knew he wasn't a wuss, give him a chance and he could probably smooth talk the guy. But Wednesday wasn't letting that happen.

"Do I make myself clear? You can understand that, Ace?"

He only snapped back into thought after hearing his name, "Crystal, mistah."

"Good." Answered Wednesday as he turned the car from park into drive, "I'm glad we understand each other."

The car ride rolled on for about only a few more seconds before it stopped again, this time for good. The gang watched with confused looks as Wednesday large frame stepped out of the car.  
"Hey, lookit!" Billy pointed forward with a big smile at the large sign in front of the car that read "Townsvile Dump", naturally he as the first one to start getting out of the car, but due to the size of the doors he was the last one to actually step outside. Jack checked his watch as he waited for the boy to come to him at the entrance.  
"As you boy know, trust is something you earn, given this I will trust you to go into your little hangout and collect any things you need, but I will be accompanying you to the actual building. It'd be crazy to let you go in alone."

"We know-" Arutro started but was cut off this time by Ace.  
"Let's just get this over with guys.." and he lead the way in the front while Mr. Wednesday picked the the pace at the back. The sun starting to turn orange and shin on the piles of trash almost made the place look nice, every used car beamed a different shade, and even the rust seemed to have a nice calming look, if only it could do something for the smell.


	3. Chapter 3

This hangout, or hideout, from location to its deign, seemed fitting Jack thought. It was a rundown little shack clearly put together with scraps of unfinished wood, some of it nailed in place, while the majority of pieces where held up on good-faith. A clear reminder that, no matter height, or sizes, or looks, these were in fact children he was dealing with. A fact even shown in their criminal records of petty theft, assault, and vandalism.

Children got bored and would often act on impulse leading to such acts; tormenting older people for "kicks", or spray-painting things from names to pictures on building sides. Children even often hung out in or around convenience stores, buying snacks and treats, and when they had no money, children would sometimes steal these snacks. It in no way warranted the treatment they got from the Powerpuff Girls. Though, he supposed to preschool-aged little girls, anyone over the age of twelve seemed like fully capable adults, who thought ahead with each plan they made and understood their actions would lead to consequences. It still didn't explain the reactions of the other law enforces in this town, but he supposed that's what you got with a feeble, old man in office. In his day there probably wasn't a line between children and adult criminals. He might not have even be a ware they were children. He supposed Ace could pass for just barely a legal adult, while those like Arutro, Grubber, and William were too...unique-looking for their age to be determined aside for in their teeth and birth-records (those who possessed them, Grubber was very hard to track down). But Jack watched them slink inside like the hurt children they were, he made a mental note that some of their injuries would need minor treatment, at least for a few days.

Once the door was shut, Snake peeked out for a single second from the curtain someone nailed up who-knows-when.

"He'sssss ssstill watchin', Ace, but not coming any clossser." he said as he turned his attention back inside to the main room, which was mainly furnished by a long picnic table and mismatching chairs, and a fridge that wasn't plugged in so it normally only stored things like room-temp. Store-brand soda.

At the head of the table, near the fridge, sat Ace with his busted shades before him and his elbow on the table with his head in his hand. His eyes moved from Snake to Billy who stood by the sort-of addition they made after a car being thrown through the wall happened to cause a doorway and hole in the roof they couldn't and didn't want to properly fix. It now acted as a bedroom (and storage room) if everyone wanted to sleep at the same time but couldn't spread out properly in the main room without moving the table and chairs.

"We need to get this guy off our backs." Arutro said as he hoped up on the bench.  
"I know." Ace muttered  
"Pffft."  
"I know, Grubber." Ace replied a bit more annoyed.

"-and we need to eat soon, I wanna sleep." Billy said.  
"I _know_."

"Ssssssso, what do we do?"

Because he was the last to speak, instead of replying the still-annoyed Ace just smacked Snake upside the head as he walked by, nothing personal.

"Will yous guys jus' shut up and lemme think?!"

Only the sound of his feet moving from wood to dirt, going from one room to the next, was all that was heard in the tiny shack.

Ace looked around the room that was wall-to-wall with odds and ends, from sleeping-bags and blankets, to home-made beanbag chairs out of garbage bags and, well, garbage. Crates both full and empty acted as tables, some full of expired food and other things stores threw out. He slowly went over to the crate in the far-left, near one of the beanbag chairs and removed the purely decorative, shade-less, lamp from on top of it, along with the top and beheld his treasure;about fifty pairs of replacement, dark, black sunglasses. He smiled as he put a pair on and his only paused so his eyes could readjust to the darkness they were used to. Then he moved a pair into his vests' inner-pocket.

The rest of the group held their breath in the main room as they waited for Ace's return. In fact you could hear the collective sigh of relief when all saw their leader return as he should look, just as confident as ever in himself and then.

"Boys! Listen up! Here's the plan..." He waited as everyone leaned in closer, he loved drawing the anticipation out. With a smile he just said, simply and finally after a few seconds, "we're gonna play along."

"Ace are you nutsssss?" Snake asked, Ace glared at him "-I'm mean good plan, Ace."  
"Yeah? Right! I'mma genius ya'know? I mean think about it," his smile was back gain showing off all of his teeth. "We go along, and eventually he's gonna get tired of us, everyone else in Towns-stupid has." Then he laughed a little at his own, poor, insult of a joke on the town name and the other boys joined along. They had to admit he had a point. So each boy got together anything they wanted with them, sleeping bags, magazines, comics, Billy just grabbed the whole fridge- and they were ready to try this "plan"- if it could be called that. Children never thought things through.


	4. Chapter 4

The room they were shown was no marvel of architect or design, or decoration- if you could call it that. The room was bare, from wood flooring, that was easy to scrap and scuff, to walls with wallpaper not yet peeling, but old enough it probably could be with just one touch.

The only furnishing in it were a couple of bunk beds, one on each side of the room, leaving a very bare middle aside for a black metal bar along the wall. it gave them room to set things down.

They looked it around, all being able to do basic math. There was five of them, and four beds. Something wasn't adding up.

"We need anothah bed," Ace finally said as he stepped over bags of his friends things and into the center of the room.

"Maybe one ah those things that folds up, yaknow so we still got the floor for our stuff."

"Uh-Ace?" Snake asked.

"Not now, I'm tryin' to think. Ya' guys know those beds that kind of fall out?" Ace asked, as he explained farther he hadn't notice Billy crept over, curious about the metal bar on the wall. In his pacing and thinking, Ace didn't notice as Billy reached a large hand out to try and pick the bar up.

"Uh, Ace-" Snake said, raising a finger to point slightly.

"Not now. I'm tryin' to think how we're gonna make this work." The second the words left his mouth Ace's eyes got wide enough to peek out over his sunglasses as a bed came down upon him.

"Sorry Ace!" Billy said quickly, looking downward as Ace groaned and crawled from under the pull-down bed. Like the bunk bed, it was made neatly with some blue sheets and one pillow.

"Dont be, big guy-" he moaned a bit, "just pull." He gave Billy his arm and without even biting down Ace's shoulder was poped back into place, this happened a lot.

"This'll work perfect. Glad I found it." Ace nodded as he smiled, and took a few seconds to roll his shoulder forward and backwards.

Now all the boys moved forward finding a place for garbage bags full of their things under beds, a harder taste since the pull-out took up a lot of floor space and they started claiming territories. Lil Arturo and Grubber took the buttom two bunks, as Snake climbed to a top bunch. Ace had a foot up just about to claim the second top spot when the big voice made him stop.

"I wanna be up top." Billy said.

"Ssssorry, you know the rules." Snake hissed to him,

"Us oldah guys up top. Jus' the law." Ace took his place and leaned back onto the wall, his head just barely hitting the ceiling. Billy frowned.

"Phhhffff," said Grubber from his bottom bunk. He liked the feeling of a small, hole, and Billy smiled again.

"Yeah, well put Grubber." Ace nodded, as Billy climbed into the larger, pull-out bed. He didn't have to put up with someone sleeping above him, he was probably the only true smile amoung the group. He was sore and tired, and hungry, and had dealt with so much yelling, but right now he got his own bed. Every one else was tired, and sore, and hungry, but they didn't get their own beds. Everybody had just gotten comfortable, their bodies resting and refusing to move. The room fell silent for a long time, until outside the room came a monotone command;

"Boys! Hands washed! Come eat!"

And collective groan came from the beds, but the one that rsng out the loudest was a whine of

"Gah-Dam-it!" At the idea of having to move again. Before Billy even sat up Jack Wednesday stood in the doorway, he no longer wore his jacket or hat, his white sleeves were rolled up his elbow and matching a cooks apron. Yet his face was as serious and angry as it was at the arcade.


	5. Chapter 5

"I hope I did not just hear, what I think I heard."The he large man spoke, as he adressed his new charges footsteps coming as much into the room as he could, where the only sound. "Because I think I heard some fowl language."

At this he had everyone's attention, Grubber and Authro having to pull themselves from the depts of the buttom bunk to look at Jack, Snake and Ace leaned over their beds.

"Wha'd we say?" Billy managed to ask, before could go on.

It dawned on the man that, children so uneducated, couldn't know the difference in when words were appropriate to say. It seems their parents, those that had them (Grubber was very hard to track down), had also neglected morals- big shock. Jack sighed,

"The word I am referring to William is "damn". Who knows whst that word means?"

Grubber raised his hand out from the side of his bed. For a moment, Jack's eyes looked from all of the boys, their confused looks hadn't changed, just as his stern look hadn't changed.

"Grubber?" Jack asked, actually seeing the hand this time and not so blinded as he had been. He even slowly folded his hands behind his back, which was still an authoritative stance, but less angry.

"Ppffft."

"That's...right.." he was somewhat proud, somebody knew something, but his and voice still didn't change, "very good, Grubber. Now, knowing That context-"

"I dunno, sssssssoundss made up,"Snake shrugged.

"No it's true," Lil' Artho said, "they got the "dam" sound in front-"

"That's correct, 'damn' is from the word 'damnation'," Jack tried to explain, but he wasn't big on religion. "A word meaning a place you don't want to end up- in other words you just wished your dinner away to a terrible place, where it can't be eaten.- and I dont want to hear that word uttered under this roof again-"

"Wha' about outside?" Ace asked, a tiny smile finally tugging at his lips.

"Outside as well, that word should never even cross your mind. It can cause hurt feelings, which I'll admit seems to be a former hobby of yours, and sounds unintelligent. And we will dicuss the other words at a later date. For now I would very much like to enjoy dinner. As I know you all would."

"You jusssst said it was magic," Snake pointed out. Had it been Billy who spoke, Ace wouldn't have reacted. But today wasn't a great day for him. He would've hit Snake had they been on the same side of the room, but instead a well-used glare did the same trick and Snake looked away in shame. Jack just sighed, "hands washed, now please."

Billy rode first, followed by Grubber, Ace, Artho, and Snake was last. Jack watched the boys go to down the hall of his small, bare apartment, and didn't even looked as he stopped Snake with a frim hand on his shoulder.

"Pick up your feet when you walk, son. it will make your shoes last longer."

"Are you nutss?" Snake just asked, that wasnt how things were done.

"Try it."

Snake looked down, his knees and tightd were almost shaking at the thought. Slowly, he awkwardly lifted his foot into the air at an almost ninety-dree angle, and moved it forward. One foot down, then the next, it felt unnatural. But he did it for a few more steps.

Hours later, the apartment was dark. It wasn't much, just a living room, kitchen, bathroom and Jack's room. The boy's room had been for when Jack had his nephews stay over, and even a lady friend lived there before Jack married his job. He sighed at the sink full of dirty dishes, and the messy children sleeping with barbeque staining shirts and unwashed faces. No one was in the bed the bed they picked out, somehow they all gravitated into a pile in or near William's bed.

They ate like it was their first meal with hands, the chicken it was acceptable, but they even did so with peas and potatoes as if a fork would be in their way. Frankly, Jack thought the vegetables would've been another fight, but aside for someone puking a small amout from eatting too fast, dinner went very well.

He'd do the dishes in the morning, but he did go into his kitchen to find the phone book, and bring it over to his phone to dial an old colleague.


	6. Chapter 6

"I understand it's late, Mr. Greene, so I'll keep this short."  
"Oh it's no problem at all, Jack. I got a job for few months for an English teacher- So I'm still awake grading papers, I just had a small coffee. Something the matter? I haven't had any trouble like at the last school, if that's what your calling about."  
"It's not trouble I'm calling about but rather answers, I've recently ended up taking in a group of boys who seem to be of...um," Jack paused to clear his throat, few things made him one thing that always did was proper terms in this changing world, nowadays. "They seem to be...of Islander-decent."  
"Well, I've always preferred the term 'Monster-American', but I suppose that is an acceptable term-you _are_ my parents age..." Greene mumbled the last part, as he spread out on his sofa with papers on his coffee table. "Anyway, is it a cultural issue? Are they just off the boat?"

"No, most are born here it seems, in fact most of them only seem of be half-monster, at least legally. Their surnames aren't any of the ones just handed out in costumes. Grubber I suspect may have been brought over illegally, but any attempt to find even parents have run dry. The issue I'm calling about is a doctor-"  
"Ah, good doctors are hard to find here. Well, I know a man who used to be a doctor on Monster Island (fifty years ago), he could maybe treat the boys. How old are they?"  
"They range from fourteen years old to seventeen." Jack replied, starting to lean back in his kitchen chair.  
"Ah, that is an important time in their lives, new teeth coming in voices changing, hair in new places, sometimes bones break-up instead of bind- the way humans do, and of course skin-care is very different in most cases. But I suppose that's a case-to-case issue-"  
"Yes, well these aren't just normal check-ups, from records I've found some haven't been to a doctor since age of six, if ever. From just look at a few of them, bones have healed wrong,- I haven't even looked up a dentist yet, and I don't think they've been eating properly..." He trailed off with a weary much to do with children, fully grown or otherwise. But he made a promise to himself these boys were his now, weather he liked it or not.

"Okay, okay, relax. I know a doctor who can help, but like I said, he's retired and works out of an apartment currently, but if you're really worried about these kids, I can give you his daughter's number."

"His daughter?"  
"She's in medical school herself, between her going in, and her dad being retired, I'm sure they help he kids."  
"Do they do this sort of thing often?"

"Oh, very often, they have to. The only problem is they're over in Cityville."

"I can make it there. What's the address?" Jack asked and paused to get a pen and paper, scribbling it down quickly along with directions, when done, he thanked and hung up.  
"Geez, who are you talkin' to at this hour?" Ace asked as he stood in the no way for no more than a second before making his way over to the kitchen sink. He removed his jacket to sleep so it was just his thin body in a half-tucked-in shirt and pants. He still wore his sunglasses, but this was most likely so his eyes weren't bothered coming into the kitchen from the dark bedroom.  
"You're suppose to be asleep." Jack said simply, he watched Ace carelessly turn on the sink and run his hands under the water, trying to get some bar-barque off his hands he didn't bother with earlier.

"Relax, I'm jus' washin'. So who was you talking to anyways? You gotta an old lady or somethin'?" He chuckled at this, thinking the only thing that would even date a terrifying thing like Jack, was Jack in a wig. She probably called herself Jill.

"That is not your concern, but I feel it is in your concern to know I am in the process of making doctor appointments for you boys. Hopefully we can get the medical look-overs done sometime tomorrow."  
Ace started to chuckle a bit harder as he turned off the sink's water and flicked his hands of dripping, before just trying to dry the rest on his pant-legs as he started moving back the way he came.  
"Good luck gettin'em to go. Big guy got a tooth goin' bad and pullin' it was like...well, pullin' teeth, hasn't let any of us near with medical junk since, an' Grubber jus'...kind'a has his own thing goin' on."  
"You're going to Ace." and Jack watched the boy stopped dead in his tracks.  
"Woah- we don't need ta' be doin' all that." He chuckled a little nervously.  
"The walls in this apartment are thin, I heard you already injured yourself."  
"We popped it back into place!" Ace Protested as Jack rose. He was a lot less scary when sittin' down for Ace.

"For me to not take you as well as the others would be irresponsible on my part, and dangerous on the part of you boys should some existing condition worsen." His voice did not change from his normal, single tone. But maybe it as that tone that stopped Ace so easily as Jack went on. "Should it worsen I would not be doing my job, would I No. So tomorrow we are going to see Dr. Embertooth, and you ill be going as well. Do you understand?"  
"Yeah...yeah..."Ace chuckled and nodded as he hurried awake down the hall, feeling a bit greener than he normally looked. He hadn't dreaded a morning more, not even all the paperwork that followed them physically being thrown in jail seemed like so much torture.


	7. Chapter 7

The apartment building was a far cry from what anyone was used to, let alone the area. Townsville's downtown wasn't even so bad. but in Cityville the buildings were older, more cramped together, some stacked like wobbling blocks, while others stood firm against any weather, needless to say all kinds seemed covered in grim and dirt of at least three generations. When they entered the city a few of the children in the gray, square car would peek out. All five of the green children were tired, given that it was around 7am, their clothes wrinkled from sleeping the night before (Wednesday already made a mental note about shopping. First on the list were shoes as _someone_ wore through his soles) and hardly a single head wasn't tucked down at their chest, or back onto the seat in trying to get some rest. William, whom the other boys had made a point of not telling where they were going, had his head half tucked into his chest and was able to use the window to keep it there. Next to him sat Ace with his head back on the headrest, he looked greener than normal but Jack, looking back in his mirror, couldn't tell if he was awake or alseep thanks to his sunglasses. Next to him was Sanford, who was clearly asleep with his head tucked into his chest, using the flat head of the also asleep Arturo to keep it in place. For a single moment, Jack thought, with Grubber riding next to him and his eyes closing, the traffic report on very low, the car ride was peaceful.

And then hitting a pothole caused it all to go away so fast. Each one woke up with a grumble and a groan, Arturo with a small amount of spit in his hair from Sanford, andWilliam rubbing his head on the top of the car, he smiled as he looked out the window.

"Hey, I know this place." He pointed out the window and Ace leaned over, crinkling his nose a bit.

"Ooooh yeah, me too." He nodded, "my folks lived around here ah while back. Imma gooey pizza." And he proceeded to laugh, those more awake did as well. Aside for Jack who remind focus on the road. He understood the joke, just didn't find it amussing. "Gooey" branched off from a stereotype that monthers were all either giant lizards, or cyclops, or some combination, but all covered in goo. While the "pizza" term clearly came from Ace's parental Italian hiretage, however adding gooey to it meant that a person could mistake the term for a cheese pizza, it was actually a term often used by outsiders in the small area of Little Isle. Jack was gripping the wheel harder as he tought about it, such a term thrown around by children as a joke. Though, honestly he still wasn't surprised. In his first attempt to locate the boys he started with parents, Ace and Williams parents did, in face live in the area and were easily tracked down. When asked about their son Mr. And Mrs. Copular simply started aruging with eachother, first about him and then unrelated things. Jack left and they didn't even pause in their fighting. Those people called themselves parents! Had they allowed him to get a word in, he would've scolded them himself.

William's mother was at least a little more reasonable, and sat down to talk, but Jack shut down farther communications with her when the woman (larger than William and Jack) told Jack very plainly how she planed to handle her son when and if he came home to her. He even found some information on The Widow Guerra, but she had so many other children and so much noise going on in the background of their phone call, he was very certain she wasn't even aware Arturo was missing. Some people!

Stewing in his own anger, Jack felt a finger poke his arm and Grubber pointed to the speed the car was going. Slowly the car went back down to the proper speed limit set by fine law enforcements. Before it slowed to a stop in parking, and everyone could get out. Seeing everyone get out of the car, having to do so stretching out long limbs, backs and necks, and such. Jack made a note, if going to keep these boys on and turn them into proper citizens, he might want to look into more space in a car, if he could afford it.

The apartment was like the others with a small iron railing protecting people from sort of falling into the entertains for the most bottom apartments, and and as Jack had it written on paper that the needed apartment number was "BMT 1", that was where they headed. Down they went a set of narrow, deep, old concert steps probably built by drunks in need of work after The War. After the steps came a small, stoop-like area with only one step, surprisingly the large group all fit on with space enough for Jack to knock at this old door. You could tell by the uneven frame it had also been built by drunks, probably the only reason the bricks themselves were laid properly was because they were flat when delivered. After the first few knocks, a slender black-headed woman with a very plan look, slightly largr nose, two very apathetic dark eyes, and light green skin and a few scales answered the door. She was a little young for Jack, but the salient teenage boys behind him was a very good compliment.

"I'm Wednesday, Jack Wednesday."

"Oh yes. We spoke yesterday, c'mon in." She spoke with a slightly pinched nose, but was plesant enough, as everyone filed in.

They filled the living room easily, as a smell of must and age hit noses first. Even the furniture was the kind of old, hard chairs, and sofa, that youd find in an elderly persons home. The coffee table seemed to have permanent doilies on it with a mixture of magazines from roughly the 1980s as if it was a real waiting room. They took seats, Billy on the sofa next to Jack and Snake. Ace spread himself out over one of the armchairs and smiled as he got a look at the lovely young doctor in training walk away with these nice hips into the back of the apartment. Suddenly seeing a doctor didn't seem as bad as before, heck if she was the one working on him than he'd even go first. Then he'd really made a good first impression, not that he doubted himself but this was an older woman, and going after one in a romantic sense was a challenge.

Just as quickly as the good news came, Ace's smile faded as this tiny, hunched over, green-to-nearly yellow-skinned, near-sighted thing in a sweater, that was sure to crush any dreams entered into the room slowly. did say he was retired after all.

"Now let's see what we got here." His voice shook as much as his hands as he came closer to the group and slowly looked each one over;

"Youre a long young woman." He said to Ace who merely huffed and glanced away as Snake hissed out a few chuckles along with billy's larger laugh.

"I aint ah lady.-" he would've said more words, but he noticed the doctor had moved on to Arturo.

"Mhm. Very nice eyes.."

Then to Grubber "you've certainly got some growin' to do." Then before he got to Bill y he paused, pulling out a used cloth from his pocket he sneezed into it, the rag caught fire, but almost as if nothing had happened the old man put it in his pocket and patted the small flame out. All of the boys now just stared a bit.

"Bit of a cold there.." just mumbled, before he turned his eyes back up to thr group and to Billy,

"You'll go first, son."

"Duh, first for what?" Billy asked with his normal big small, suddenly all of his friends looked away, they knew it was going to be bad news.

"A medical check up, son. Come along now." The doctor turned away and started taking a few steps towards the back of the apartment as only Jack saw Billy's smile fade very slowly as he decoded the words competely into an understandable concept.

"William, you should go with him." Jack said firmly and surprisingly simply for him.

"Ah don't wanna. No thanks."

"While I commend the manners in use, it's not going to get you out of it. You need to go with him."

Jack watched Billy sort of twiddle his thumbs before pressure got to him and he rose to meet the old man, who was only halfway down the short hall way.

"We sure that guy reallah used ta' be ah doctah?" Ace whispered to the others as Billy was out of earshot. "'Sides, even if he was, his degree didnt mean nuthin' here."

"Yeah. Boss, you see his hands shaking?" Arturo asked "what if That guy gose to make a shot and misses- then you get a new hole in your arm. Or no arm at all, he shakes enough he probably do that."

Ace went to say something, but he wss cut off bt a trashing like a bull in a China shop from the back of the apartment and then nothing. All sounds of screaming stopped dead and the young Doctrr Embertooth rushed out in a hurry, her long skirt finally allowing them to see the shape of her legs with how fast she moved. Quietly she whispered a few words to Jack, who just nodded before he rose and followed her back into the office.

It wasn't a large room with all of them back there, but it was enough for patients of all size and the doctor. On an examination table sat Billy a liytle slumped over but still awake.

"What exactly did you do, Doctors?"

"Well, my father suggested either-"

"Either?!"

"Yes- but I gave him a nice relaxer. Just a little shot. Not either of any kind." She even showed him the vile it came from.

"I wanna go..." Billy mumbled as the older doctor carefully cleaned up the mess his patient made from over reacting to a stethoscope. He tiped over a few trays and a small bookshelf nothing too bad.

"He'll be fine in a few hours, more than enougn time to look him over."

"I see," Jack nodded " lets get one thing straight, doc. I dont fully trust your methods, your father's skill, or this environment to be as clean as it could be for this needed job. You probably haven't even stsrted a residency have you? Didn't think so. You haven't had the personal training, just textbooks and probably havent learned about bedside manner, you may not even be going into juvenile medical care, and you may not understand fully how these growing bodies differ, but right now: you're the best they're got and the only doctors around. So with that in mind, you may get started."


	8. Chapter 8

Billy, the biggest of the group had this sort of dazed smile coming out from under his mop of red hair the whole time the nice, young pretty woman talked to him and wrote things down, and the old man would do...things around the room, he wasn't sure what and didn't care. He remembered standing, he had to lean on a wall to stay on the scale otherwise he kept swaying and it distorted the image of the pretty green-skinned lady.

"Just as I though," she said as her eye stayed on the clipboard as she wrote, "a nice 1014 pounds. You can sit down now William, thank you."

"I like Billy.." Billy answered as he went with this still goofy-smile."But I think I like you more."

smiled a bit back, "well you're a very sweet boy, Billy. Now Im going to do a quick eye-test.- Dad just have a seat." Her attention quickly turned to the old man who wss a litte out of breath from fetching something from the otherside of the cramped with things, but wide wth space, oiffce.

"I can still treat people, Deborah."

"All Im saying is you're out of energy from cleaning up that table, this one dosent seem so bad. I can handle it."

"Youre still a student."

"Its just a minor check-up, Dad." She rolled her eye as Billy brushed back his hair to show off his own bright, baby blue eye.

Outside in the livingroom that tried so very hard to be a waitingroom the rest of the little gang was still spread out in seats. Ace, however, had sat up and was in the process of some what smoothing out his clothes, checking his breath, all the typical things teenagers do.

"Knew ah shudda shaved this mornin'." He grumbled.

Jack had been watching out of the corner of his eye, pretending to read a magazine dated 1975, when he spoke up.

"You shave? Son, those pencil markings hardly warrent puling out a razer."

Ace just smiled with pride, "yeah, but ah gotta keep'em lookin' good an' trim. 'Ey, Lil' Arturo," he leaned over now to the small one "lemme barrow Maria."

"No way, boss." The smallest one said, in the middle of using his comb to brush out his own hair for the lady. "Maria's mine. Her sharp teeth only work for me."

"Cmon, it'll be five seconds."

"No way, not with your long hair, boss-lady-boss." He started to laugh at his own joke until Ace rose from his seat and the laughter died down.

"Wha'di'ya call me?"

"Eh, the old man said it first!" He clamed as he held his comb to his chest for her protection. Jack let out a low rumble a second later.

Meanwhile back in the other room Billy was just finishing up and able to stand as his painkiller wore off. He'd gotten a shot and was admiring his large Puppet Pals bandaid as lead him back to the living room. He didn't even notice, Ace, Lil'Athuro and Jack were missing. He was jist glad he was able to sit on the couch and look at his bandaid. scanned the room and her eye landed on Snake next. He seemed to grt tense as she watched, he sat up straighter and sweat a bit, just wishing shed look anyway else. But he soon found himself gulping hard as he was lead into the back room, pretty lady or not.


	9. Chapter 9

He had a sort of gaunt appearance up-close, she thought. But it certainly lpoked more natural on him than his friend, his whole body had a nice, loose, look to it, despite the fact that he was slumped over and glancing around nervously waiting for something to happen. Right away she knew an X-ray would probably reveal his body was made up of a number of smaller bones. She also knew they should be x-rayed anyway to properly check for any cracks, due to his body it was a little hard to tell what could have healed wrong.

"Ssooo, can I go?" Snake asked after a few quiet moments, just wondering what she was writing down. He made a point if scooting away when the elderly tried to come at him with a tongue depressor.

"We're just getting started." Replied the old man, his shaky hand blarely able to grab Snake and force his tongue open.

"Can you tell me any family history? Where are your parents from?" Miss Embertooth asked, Snake found it hard to think as he got an eyefull of light.

"Uh, Mom's from around here- sssshes ssscottish, and her dad's from Monster Island- My Dad isssss from Monsterland, yaknow Japan?"

"That sounds like a hurtful stereotype." She replied as she wrote.

"No, Monsterland the island in Japan. Geez, cmon lady." He tried rolling his eyes, like he was that dumb. But got another eye full of light.

"Im aware I was only trying to joke, your father's family is from there?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Okay, just wondering- we may have to do a few extra tests,.."

"What?! No way! I don't wanna be longer than I gotta."

"Don't worry, we can only do so much here- limited technology."

"It's top of the line!" agured to his daughter. She fought not to roll her own eyes. "Yes, Dad Im sure it was top of the line at one point."

"Have we tested for radiation yet?" He asked. Snakes eyes never got more wide, and Deborah fought very hard to stay calm.

"No, Dad. We wont have to, those bombs dropped almost sixty years ago- we're just taking a little blood to make sure its healthy."

Snake made even more of an effort to get this forgetful old timer as far away from him as he could. But the man seemed to insist on checking his eyes a second time, like something waant right, but instead of relaying this he simply started small talk like most doctors.

"So you're from Monsterland, eh?"

"Actually I said-"

"What's a human taste like then?" Dr. Embertooth asked with a nice innocent smile as Snake's face slowly fell into complete shock.

"What's it you call them? Long-chickens?"

If he wasn't blind he would've hurt the man.

Soon, but not soon enough he came back into the waiting room and spotted Ace and Lil' Arturo standing, Ace leaning on the wall near the door to the apartment, and the latter was able to lean against the couch's armrest. Arutor made a point to look away and with sunglasses on couldn't really tell where Ace was looking unless his head was turned the same way. Quietly, still a little miffed Snake stuck himself neatly between and Big Billy on the couch, hoping Grubber would be next so he could take his seat. He didnt even want to mess with the one Ace had been sitting in, what if he wanted it back?

About five, quiet minutes later Deborah came out from rhe back room, due to his height Ace was the first one she saw.

"You're next then."

"I am glad to be next too." He smiled as he followed her, his best smile. This was a lady he could smooth over for sure. Once in the back room he opened his mouth,

"Now, listen, honey you got me in here. But I don't need no doctah, unless you work with hearts an' is free latah ta'night." He chuckled.

"That's Deborah-"

"And Im Ace, we'd go great togetah like that old book with the rabbit an' that doctah of hearts?"

She really rolled her eyes then, this was going to be a long check up just going by ignorance.

"Ill handle the needles, Dad." She turned he attention by to her father in the back and went to take the job from him. "You can finish up the new one?"

"Alright, okay, you're steadier at it." And he started to hobble over to Ace with a smile. "Well hello young lady. A word of advice before we get started? Men dont like tall girls, so maybe wear a shorter heel next time?"

Needless to say the doctor was very lucky Ace had a pain in his lower backside that made it a little hard to focus all of his anger onto one person. What would've normally been an old man pushed aside, and probably some stolen suckers from that jar nearby because he was bored, angry, and a little low on sugar, become more of a grumpy pout. Most of his anger was focused, at the time, on .

Shockingly, his check up went quick. With everything sadly being handled by the old man, Ace tried very to even sneak a peek at Deborah and she wasn't allowing it. Eventually though, she did walk him out of the back room and he made a point to let her go first, like a gentleman.

Honestly even with Grubber and Lil Arturo needing check ups the longest part of that whole day was waiting as Jack spoke with Deborah in the back room. It felt like a whole hour and was strangely much quieter than Jack normally was when dealing with people. So the boys used to this time and were able to properly spread out. Normally, this was the time Ace would think of something for them to do, and he could feel the others eyes on him. Part of him didnt even want to think about doing anything, but as his pain in the butt wore off and the time dragged on that they had been without supervision- Ace slowly got a small idea, he sat up and smiled.


	10. Chapter 10

Billy smiled pretty proudly at the images on the wall before him. The others took spray paint or chalk they found near-by and got to work. Ace started with a crudely styled mess that took advantage of some chipped brick-work, making it seem like part of a city a giant robot had wrecked, and a clearly nude woman screaming over the carnage. Snake and Arturo had teamed up to a more traditional piece simply writing 'Cityville suxs', with each taking one word of the statement, Arturo standing on Sanke's shoulders so he could do the top word and Snake worked below him. Grubber had finished a nice copy of "Leda and The Swan", but only drew Leda and the swan, leaving out the background and foreground. But Billy still smiled over his own work.

"Think I'm done, boss." He beamed still as Ace leaned over, moving his sunglasses down to see.

"Well,...it's bettah than last time, big guy. But ah don't think that's how ya' spell 'graffiti'. I think it's only got one 'F"."

"Pfft." Grubber spoke up as he leaned over.

"Oh it'sss got two 'F'ss?" Snake asked as he leaned over."maybe it'sss got two 'T'ss then?"

"No its one of those words that has the stupid "P-H" that makes the "F" sound." Arturo said, each one studying the work on the wall that simply read: "GRAFFIti by BIG Billy"

They stayed there studying their work in the alley that was between the apartment building they were suppose to be in, and some other old square, behemoth of a building. Finally after a few moments Ace just asked: "any uh you guys hungry? I seen ah hot dog stand down the street."

"Yeah I could eat." Arturo said, the others mumbled agreements.

"Then let's move," Ace announced.

"Let's not and listen!" A gruff voice caught their attention from behind and eyes went wide, they always knew the speaker. "Just when I think I can leave you boys to your own for a five seconds, you turn back into punks. Here I thought you had learned enough to not write on walls, but of course not going to school or having decent role models- I was wrong. What's a role model you ask? Someone you look up to, admire, and learn from- in most cases it's parents, but I've met most of your parents and I can see you learned well from them." The gang had turned around as he came closer, every one had a little fear in them.

"Hey, you got us wrong, we-" Ace started to say, but of course got cut off.

"Zip it, Ace!" He leaned in clpser and made direct eye-contact with him. "Seeing the events of eariler today, I should be shocked you decided to act out twice. I did not enjoy putting you over my knee, the very action- a controversial one- hurt me much more than you, but you try and try and-"

It was an act Jack didnt take lightly, he'd seen younger parents just swat a child as they passed by. If you asked him that was more humiliating. He performed it privately, and never used insterments like a belt or paddle, and never bare skin.

"-Sometimes it's just what's needed." Jack mumbled as the last boy left his sight.

All five boys soon stood, a little sore in their bedroom. They had maybe one to two spanks directly each, done one by one in the living room in private. As Jack stood up from his armchair and moved into the kitchen. After lunch they would be going back to Cityville to clean up the mess the boys made, then there was the matter of getting their known medical issues handled, Grubber's back brake, a few of Ace's and Snake's bones needed to be reset, the Embertooth's could only do so much. Then of course shopping, and he still had to find a school for them. But, as he made five peanut butter and banana sandwiches, one a double-decker, his heart did still hurt a bit from having to do what he did, even if his serious face never showed it, and children needed to learn, he didnt trust them enough to try a grounding, they probably wouldn't stay put.


	11. Chapter 11

The following dinner was a little quiet at first. But even with tension in the air, Jack still watched these boys really eat. Maybe it was the hard work they put in cleaning up their mess, or the early morning, or the slightly out-of-touch doctor, but they ate as if they still hadn't eaten the last two proper meals. Due to how late it was, and the rough day, dinner wasn't anything fancy. He expected noses to be turned up at S.O.S, but the boys still ate the creamed, chipped beef on toast, even the peas, without any complain. Well, aside for having to be reassured it was really food when fist presented with it.

As he served each plate, and the boys took seats around the table; Ace at one end, Snake to his right, Grubber on his left. Billy and Lil' Arthor sat on the sides of Jack at the other end by default.

"Hands washed?" Jack asked, calling the attention of the few who dared to dig into the food the moment they sat. Billy paused mid-bite. Snake had been absent-mindedly picking his up, but stopped.

"Well, they was clean." Ace answered, nodding to Big Billy who large hands had accidentally turned his toast into a few peices of toast causing the beef to get on his hands.

"'Member?" He smiled, hoping to play on the fact that most old people Ace met were- well, forgetful old folks in wheelchairs with bad memories. Jack glanced around, he knew for a fact he heard no water running from any sink in the apartment. But seeing how Billy choose to eat caused a mess of beef on his hands anyway- he sighed and let it slide.

Manners seemed lost on them when it came to eating peas, and Jack was not surprised. They were obnoxious, loud, untamed children. Some of the mess he could understand, Billy was a messy eater by nature. But Jack's breaking point was after Grubber had tried throwing peas into his mouth, but before Snake could load his spoon like a catapult.

"ENOUGH!" His voice actually reached a higher, angerier tone for long enough to stay the word. Peas feel off Snake's spoon abd back on to his plate as Jack got all eyes on him.

"I'm going to assume you boys know how to just eat, quietly. It's not a hard task." He would have gone on, but the doorbell rang.

"Sanford, get the door."

"Wha'? Why me? I wassn't even."

"Door, Sanford." Jack repeated sterner. Snake pushed his chair back and grumbled under his breath as he slidered out of he room.

"-And I told you not to drag your feet." Jack called. Snake didn't answer.

What stood at the door was a thin thing in a long black coat, limbs akwardly and unsurely moving; a foot placed behind the other on its' toes, a hand rubbing the back of his neck. He looked warn, and weather, with thin hairs covering his more than starved face and bags under his eyes. His skin had a sort of yellow-green color, almost like a sea sickness, or Jaundice given his eye color. In fact, if it wasn't for the peices of scales occasionally flaking off as he rubbed his neck, or his chipped teeth having a few too-many points, he could almost look human. When Snake answered, he stopped rubbing his neck and ran a hand through his greasy, short, dark hair.

"H-hey, kid-uh. .. Howsss... it goin'?" As the man talked, his face had this distant look that almost matched the distracted, nervous tone in his voice that occasionally drifted off mid-sentence.

"Uh- fine." Snake mumbled, a bit shocked and staring himself. "Yeah-yeah? Your mother ssaid..somethin'- uh!" Then suddenly he'd snap back into focus and blink a few times, his stance became a little more sure and he made eye contact with the teen, who stood a hair or so shorter. "You grew..." the man just muttered, keeping his mouth slightly open with a smile.

"Yeah, that happensss. What are you doin' here? You okay?" Snake frowned as he asked, the man seemed to be talking sense. But it was hard to tell. Seeing as he just got a blank look from the man, Snake when on. "Ya'know are you still all..." he trailed off and looked up at nothing for a second.

"Oh that!" A chuckle followed, "oh, no. No. I'm-I'm okay- I mean I'm not- I've been worse." His hand figeted in his pocket, Snake wasn't sure if he was lying but before he could go on to question, the man cleared his throat.

"Your mother, said sshe- uh-...got a messssssage from some guy about'cha?" And just like that the little, complete focus the man had was fading as he started seeing things that were hard to ingore. Snake didn't care much and his attention was right to the news.

"THAT GUY CALLED PARENTS?!"

"Yeah. Yeah he did...sssso-sorry-" he mumbled as he pulled a cigarette from his jacket "so-so- he ah good guy?" He shook the cigarette as if flicking something from it, maybe pocket lint, maybe a small being only he saw.

"I guessss? He'ss annoying an' a jerk an'-"

"Sseeems like he's doin' okay then. He around?"

"What?! You can't really be-?!" Snake asked outraged, but with a puff of smoke the man of around 30 or so, akwardly pulled rank. There wasn't a strict tone to his voice, or even an annoyed look in his eyes, but rather he muttered out

"..Sanford Daisssuke Ingleberry.."

Snake's whole face fell as if it was much more of a threat, he slunk back inside, backwards. Shutting the door once inside.

It was only a few poofs off his cigarette before the door opened again. The stranger at the door even stood shorter than Jack Wenseday, who frowned at being distrubed from supper.

"Can I help you?" He asked polity enough, "what is it you're selling young man? I don't like my time wasted and my supper getting cold."

overcome by the size, he just stood there, cigarette going limp in his mouth. Then his eyes started to wander to over Jack's shoulder, Jack went on.

"You know the dangerous of smoking? And I assume its not good for whatever you're selling here, not to mention your health. But I doubt someone like you would know or care about your own health risks. Let alone the health of those around you!" He went on in his normal manner, the cigarette happened to fall from the other man's mouth and on to the stoop as his hands fidgetted in his coat again, and one soon held out a crumpled, white, worn envelope, shaking as if offering it to some man, or demon to spare his life. Once Jack stopped his barking and took the envelope, with a confused look. The younger and shorter one stumbled back off the stoop in a panick, stopping only when he was at the buttom of the steps.

"...Geezuz," he mumbled as he ran a hand down his face, rubbing his eyes and pulling cheeks in one go, trying to get a hold of himself. "-Christ."

"...what is this?" Jack asked glaring down at the man, still holding the envelope with just one hand. The exact way he was when he took it.

"Uh-" it got the strangers attention long enough that he peeked up, his hand still on his chin. "About uh- hundred...maybe more or lesss...uh, cash. Yeah, itsss cash."

"...cash, Mister...?"

"Uh- Jack," The man at the buttom of the steps answered, "Mononoke. Ssssnake's uh...well I mean his mom and me... sssorta...but yaknow 'm not good with kids orrrr...stuff. So-so, I give money ta' hisss Mom...but uh, the kids not livin' with her. Fact I'm not even sure she'd tell me if he wasn't..." he started rubbing the back of his neck then as he half rambled on. Wenseday raised his free hand and stopped him.

"Mr. Mononoke, was it? Normally I would say you are a worthless, terrible person who is at fault for what has befallen these children. Including, what I assume you are trying to explain is your son. However, given your,...circumstances. I will look past this one discussion. But I do hope you'll get help in the future."

"...I can get more cash?" Mononoke just asked after a pause, hoping this was a better answer as he cocked his head one way, looking at the man. "I think I know you..." His mind jumped to a new track.

"Jack Wenseday, truancy officer as I explained on the message I left with-"

"Yeah,...yeah...your hair was brown 'fore in uh, eighty-three."

"I've done job a long time, son."

"It ssshows too." Mononoke nodded, he wanted another smoke. But didnt want to fsce the lecture, it was like being back in highschool.

"Uh- I gotta go." He started turning his body away, one foot placed in front of the other. "But um...thanks, Wenseday?"

Jack Wenseday squinted his eyes as he watched the young man scurrying off like a mouse advoiding a trap. He could vaguely recall busting young punks in bathrooms for smoking, drinking, and unspeakable actions with young women. But that was years ago. Was Mononoke what became of the last generation he tried to help? Jack tried searching all of the scared faces of those days, he couldn't place one as strange as Mononoke- then a young man, probably just starting to see things, or hear things. He never understood that, some punks just did mushrooms or other illegal substances. It didn't occur to him at the time that those crazy homeless men, probably started as boys with homes. He might've done things differently, if he could with that generation. But he couldn't. All he could do now was help the current generation, be it with mental issues or health and education as he was now. Seeing otherwise made him almost as sick as not being able to do his real job.

He returned inside, envelope in hand and lazily tossed among a pile of todays' mail to be delt with later on as he turned to his kitchen table. With a mess left on it, though he was still somewhat surpised, that not even peas were left over in their serving dish. Finding all the chairs empty of a mess, he could hear the boys in the living room had found the tv. This was due more to them being loud than the thin walls.

"Hey, I was watchin that!" Lil' Arturo piped up as Jack heard the static of channel change.

"Well too bad. Itssss almosst over." Snake replied, the tv had an explosion on it. Then in changed again and Jack heard some comdey.

"Hey-" Snake lost his control to Billy. Jack started to move dishes to the sink, listening to see how exactly this might play out. The TV changed again to some news story, Jack assumed it was by accident.

"Hey! That was my turn!" Billy whined.

"Pfft!"

"The Newsss is boring anyway!" The channel changed again back to some pepole cheering over an explosion, then the laugh-track of a comdey, some news report, and the channels changed faster and faster with the remote clicking and channels going in and out to static to other tv shows. The fighting got loud enough and fast enough, Jack couldn't rightly make it out as he turned the water on for the dishes and running soap in serving dishes to soak. But just as Jack was about to enter the room-

"will ya' goobers KNOCK IT OFF!"

And the room fell salient of actual voices. The tension broken only by the laugh-track on tv. Even then it wasnt on the tv for long. The remote clicked one more time, and the tv made sounds that sounded like the same program for a solid five seconds. By the time Jack entered the living room, the boys were quiet. Spread out on the sofa on the wall opposite of the t.v. Billy sitting on the floor leaning on the armrest, Ace actually sitting on a different armrest, his body facing sideways and his head cocked towards the t.v. He kept the remote in one hand folded to his chest with the other. Grubber, Lil' Arturo and Snake taking up the actual seats on the sofa cushion. All nine eyes remained on the T.V., watching a pair of animated, teenage, slackers blumb through life unsupervised as stupidty got them in and out of trouble. As if nothing happened in the past hour or so, no parent visiting, or fighting, the boys enjoyed their trash like tv. Jack shook his head as laughter filled his living room at a vulgar and stupid joke from the T.V. any other time he would've forbid that trash in his home, it was probably reasonable for the decline in morals and intelligent. But, given the day, everyone needs a way to relax. So for now, he let it slide. Tomorrow the real work began.


	12. Chapter 12

The night went one pretty quietly after the day at the doctor's (and other events that a person shouldn't talk about), it helped that the day started early so the boys winded down at around eleven. This gave Jack some more time alone to plan; children needed a lot, as he said often, and the list he had was growing, but he planned to check things off slowly; Grubber was recommended for a number of braces, such as back and neck. They'd have a different doctor for that. Eyes should be checked. He planned to have most of their eyes checked. William was concerning with just one eye, but seemingly alright depth perception. Of course Sanford needed new shoes, clothes shopping in general for all of them. The list felt longer the more he thought about it. He was thinking now about the biggest issue.

Before him, one coffee rable sat all the boys files; thick juvenile criminal records, thin to none health records (William had a terrible thick one of being treated minor injuries until he was 12 or so), nothing of school among the bunch. It made him angry, it made him sick. This deep feeling in his stomach grew. How easily Ace waved off a shoulder being popped out of place, how almost none of them reacted to it. Children shouldn't be conditioned like that. But their education came next as a way to better things. He had a few phone calls to make still that drowned out any noise from the boys' room.

The beds still took up most of the floor, Ace was in the top left bunk sleeping mostly in his clothes. His sunglasses still on hid his eyes, and also hid if he was truly awake or not. But his breathing matched the others that truely were asleep, and two pillows supposed his head as laid spread out. Snake was clam and asleep on his stomach, with a hand flopped over the side of his top bunk. It almost rested on Grubber who was under him but was moving around uncomfortably in trying to sleep on his back. Arturo used all the space he had to effectively ball up under his blanket and then spread out. All that was left was Billy, who was equally spread out in his bed between the two bunkbeds, all was quiet, but something felt wrong. He laid with his eye wide open and hardly feeling tired. So he slowly turned his body to one side and poked at Ace from his bed.

"Psst, Ace?" No answer, he poked again, "Boss?"

Ace didn't move, "hm?"

"I can't sleep."

"Hmmmm...ya' slept last night..," he mumbled.

"That was different." Billy pulled his arm back to fidget with his hands, it was clear the night before everyone was almost in a coma from food.

"...so use Snake..." Ace muttered, still not moving.

"He's too boney."

Ace slowly sat up, just an inch, and pulled a pillow from behind him. As he fell back on the remaining pillow, he also threw the spare one down there someone near Billy.

"Thank you, Boss." Billy grabbed the pillow and cuddled up with it the way one might a stuffed bear.

"Mhhm." Ace muttered. The room fell quiet. Ace's breathing slowed to sleeping speed once more.

Then he got poked once more by a noticably thiner finger.

"Hm?"

"Pff-pfft."

"Mmmh..." without actual words, Ace sat up again, removed his pillow and threw it in the general direction of Grubber as he laid back down.

"Pft."

"Yeah-Yeah..." Ace mumbled as he folded himself more into the wall and tried to sleep again.

The room fell quiet just as Ace felt himself drifting off.

Then the door open, the light came on the sun was up. Ace's eyes shot open in disbelief, as fifty different sad cruses went through his tired mind.

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I apologize for the lack of update, there's a number of factors including school. But I should've explained or asked sooner and so this is my fault. But especially with something so different from the show (the chapters with the doctor and Snake's father, even the spanking) I look for feedback before I move on. So if you could review please?

Also, people keep asking, yes the PPG will show up at some point.

Updates will be soon. Sorry for the short chapter.


	13. Chapter 13

"mr. bloodwoth*, I presume?" Jack asked as he sat at a table in a diner a block from his apartment. It was six am. Hours before the boys living with him would even start to wake up.

Across from him sat a thin man in a pink shirt, his brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and his eyes had this sort of gleam to them that smiled even when his mouth didn't. Age had been kinder to him than Jack, for though they were they were almost the same age he still had youth on his side. Age only showing in lines under his eyes, and maybe the cane he sported as he had a clear, small limp. His lips curled into a smile that showed his pink cheek bones.

"Tim is fine, really," He chuckled. "Mr. Bloodworth is my father."

"I understand you are a tutor for...special cases involving punks, ?"

"Oh I would never call them 'punks', that's a terribly negative term. But yes, I worked with juvenile criminal offenders in the foster care system, and due to," he chuckled a bit, "a number of...mishaps, we went through a lot of the regularly assigned teachers."

"May I ask why?" Jack drank his coffee, allowing Tim to answer who just shrugged.

"Well, in some cases it was a difficult class to teach, you might have some reading at a fifth grade level, some at ninth, and," he chuckled again, "and then you have some with emotional issues who enjoy starting fires and honestly couldn't tell the letter "A" from "D". But all of them made some form of progress while serving time under my care, it was just difficult to keep a full time teacher in that setting."

"So you did work with punks."

"I wouldn't call them 'punks', such a negative term isnt exactly a good thing to apply to such poor, displaced children, Jack."

"That's ' Mr. Wednesday ' to you." Jack corrected with a gruff scowl as he sighed and looked this man over. Everything about him, from sandals to ponytail, made his stomach turn and tell him this was a terrible idea. But the man did have the education level he asked for,and tutoring experience. He was also the only teacher Jack could find not doing anything at nearly midnight.

"Well, we'll see how you do today then."

"Oh wonderful to hear, I assure you I'll do what I can for these boys." His smile stayed on as Jack scowled across from him. Pink and gary did not mix at all and there was almost a clear line between the two men showing this. Not that either noticed.

By 8am Jack was back in his small apartment. He hung up his hat and jacket on the nearby coatrack before he moved down the hall. With hardly a since pause he threw open the bedroom door,turned on thr light and pulled the shade up to let the sunlight in. The green boys groaned in repsonse, aside for Ace oddly, who seemed to barely move.

*AN; for whatever reason fanfic's doc. Manager some times leaves out key words. In this case it seems to be related to capitalization. So this is a grammar error but a needed one unlike the others.


	14. Chapter 14

Timothy Bloodworth sat in what he believed was his element and calling. He'd worked with a lot of different boys and tried to be understanding. Teenagers in general won't "morning people", as they said. But Tim figured they would get moving eventually. They already started to, as all had garthered around the kitchen table, cleared of dishes and messed up again with books. A few woke up upon starting of a quick little ice breaker game- mostly to laugh at the idea. But Tim kept smiling, even chuckled along. Then the one on the end, the thin one with the small lines resembling some almost assuming attempt at facial hair, refused to wake up. He started out with his head on his desk, and when asked to sit up he simply tiled his head back in his chair and kept his eyes shut, as if sunglasses hid this effect.

Tim even tried adressing the matter gently,

"Well, 'Ace' is it? Would you care to join in?"

"Not really, jus' here 'cause going out right now is cold."

"I see. You make a good point." Tim smiled as that at least got him a small amount of shocked eye contact.

"What?" Ace asked, slowly trying to process this. He expected an eye-roll, a grumble, maybe some back-sass. Certainly not a calm, agreeing tone.

"I said you make a good point. Given the choice of being outside right now," he nodded to the gathering gray clouds clpuds out the window. "I would've certainly pick staying inside. Now then, if no one wants to try a little ice break...," the small, thin human paused to allow someone to jump at a chance or question. He counted to five in his head as Billy looked out the window, and everyone else either followed his lead or stared at Tim thinking he just died on some level. "-Then I guess we can get down to a little bit of work."

"Uh, how 'bout no?" Snake asked as he raised his slightly and put it back down.

"Hmm, that is a good idea." Tim nodded, "but let's just start with some light work."

The beginning was just flashcards, seeing what the boys knew of numbers, colors, shapes, you name it. Most of course, were bored by thing and didn't care much. Each one was given a new card and sometimes things like shapes got a little more complex if they did well on basic things. Or, well enough. Tim counted identifying a parallelogram as a "paral-diamond-thing" as close enough. When most of the boys were good with they moved on harder stuff like, letters, words and reading. It was at this point Ace had purposely given the wrong answer to the word "C-A-T" on a card.

"Is ah dog."

"Mh, well it's..similar to a dog. We'll come back to that." And Tim would set the card aside, make a small note on a notepad in his lap and move on.

He had a card for Snake next. Tim did notice to read Snake's eyes squinted ever so slightly.

"Let'ssss seee, that's ah 'Ssss" an' "A" an' "M"...an' ah "D"." Snake nodded, sure of himself. But a second later he backtracked. "-wait is "Samd" ah word? Like, maybe ssssome fancy wine?" He asked the room.

"Course it isn't, ya dolt." Ace grumbled with his chin resting in his hand.

"Let's try and be positive. I don't think "samd" is a real word, but it was a good try."

Then he moved on to Billy. Billy was already strugging the most with spelling and he asked tk stop this game before already. Tim always said "Just one more."

Testing for how far along a student was, was much harder in a group. But their wasnt room for one on one testing here.

"Okay, can I have the doggie-kitty one that Ace got?"

"Mmh, why do we see what the next card is instead?" Tim asked as they moved on.

Testing like this, for some would take a while, but after an hour some things were worked out and Tim had most of them working on some from of a language arts worksheet.

"Do we gotta do this?" Arturo asked, his worksheet was finding nouns, pronouns and verbs in sentences.

"Mhh," Tim started, "why don't we just try a few of them first."

"These stink." Ace mumbled. His worksheet was simple sentences with pictures, and you had to fill in the blanks to match the pictures. Ace however was currently, doctoring the picture of the sentence "The little girl is_" next to the picture of a girl in a dress and pigtails playing jacks, he took his pencil and added flames to her head before crudely adding "On Fir." To the end of the sentence. He cuckled to himself as that made the assignment bearable.


	15. Chapter 15

Finally, the time came and each one of them could stretch and get up from their seats. Having felt stuck in them for some time once it seemed -Man-ponytail finally ran out of things for them to do, write or answer. None of them enjoyed what baaiclly boiled down to schoolwork, without being in a schol.

Ace and Snake had taken extra time to stretch their legs when the apartment door opened ans returned with a paper bag of groceries under one of his massive arms. Grubber reached for the bag as Wenseday set it on the table, only to have his hand pushed away by the man.

"If you boys want to prove to me you're not totally useless and I have no been wasting my time there is something you can do to earn back some trust."

He had no one listening to his words until he produced a ten dollar bill from his pocket. Then it was like ringing a bell and all of the young eyes fell on the money with anticipation. Even Tim looked over from his spot at the table as he gathered things together, though this was more out of curiosity to see where this was going.

The boys quickly fell in line at seeing the money and Ace held his hand out expectantly.

"This money is ear-marked, thats means reserved- for an ingredient I need for the J-mart for dinner. I am entrusting you.." as he spoke the words Ace, and Snake both kept their smiles until the last second, when the money was put into Billy's large hand.

"William, I am entrusting you with the money, it is only to be spent on a bottle of vegetable oil."

"Duh-okay!" Billy kept his big smile and put the money far down into his pocket as Ace stared in bewilderment with Snake.

"However," Jack went on, "should money be leftover after the vegetable oil- you may buy something of your choosing."

He noticed Athuro's smile again, and quickly added. "That does not inculde coffee." Jack stressed thinking theyd have enough for some penny candy or soda.

"Right boys, you heard the man." Ace announced as he headed the group for the door, his hands in his pockets and his long legs first. "Let's roll and get this here vergin oil."

"Vegetable- Ace!" Jack called back.

"Right, Right. Its what I said- we got this."

Snake raised a small brow, but followed with the others. There must be some plan in the works- Ace agreed to this too easily for what was just leftover money.

Jack hadn't even started putting away the food he got, he simplyed watched as all dive boys left and only moved once the apartment door was shut behind them.

"Okay it's a twenty-mintue roundtrip to the corner store, so for them we have a half-an-hour to decide what to do, Bloodworth." Jack said as he turned to face Tim at the table and take a seat.

"Well, I normally like to have the children here when I do this- their input is important."

"But not useful."

"Hmm, I wouldn't say it wasnt of any use. Its good they know what's going on and they can help decide what's best for them."

"If they knew what was best for them they wouldn't be called 'children'. Let's get down to buiness already."

"Alright then." Tim nodded, they could agure ideals later on. As he got out some papers for Jack to look over "Now they all preformed below average in most areas- Except Grubber, he did well in history and language arts- now this is an issue, but it can be helped they mostly tested at middle school levels so they really just need some tutoring to catch up with their age associated standards. My only concerns are Billy, and Ace."

"William I understand, the kids got heart at least to make up for things. But what do you mean about Ace?" Jack was surpised, even if his tone or face didn't change.

"Well, he is almost 18- legally an adult in some places- and I doubt it's enough time for him to catch up with peers in a public school setting. However my concern could be nothing at all and he could "wow" us with some quick improvement." Tim chuckled to lighten the mood. When he still didnt see Jack's face change, Tim cleared his throat and moved on.

"Now, Billy- from what I understand hes never been...tested for anything?"

"Not in anyway a school would look for nowadays no." Jack nodded slightly, understanding what was meant. "But hes a good kid, just a little slow on the uptake...probably too trusting too if hes around the other punks."

"...I see, I see. We may have to look into that...and maybe some depth perception issues-"

"I have plans to get them all the treatment they need."

"Thats wonderful to hear!" Tim smiled, "you know especially for Grubber, have you thought about speech therapy?"

"The speech is caused more by jaw placement than anything else I believe." Jack half nodded. "But its not affecting his ability to learn."

"Right of course not, speaking of learning I have a question regarding Aurtho's work." Tim handed over the stack of Language Arts worksheets with Aurtho's on top. Jack glanced through misspelled and misused words filling know blanks.

"I'm just curious if his mistakes could be chalked up to speaking another language."

"I honestly dont believe the boy is fully capably of knowing two languages. However, some of these misspelling do at least look like Spanish. Its possible." He went to hand the paper back, just the one as he glanced through the rest of the stack and came across the one Ace had done.

"Whats this?"

"Oh that?" Tim smiled more, "Isn't it a very creative attempt at the assignment?"

"Is this what the assignment was?"

"Mmh, in a way. His assignment was to simply fill in the blanks with words matching the pictures and-"

"And he messed up the pictures to match what he wrote?"

"Exactly!"

Jack just sighed and pinched the brigde of his nose. They spent the next twenty minutes talking more about in detail how to help each boy (and trying not to agure over whether or not to allow "creative" assignments) and then ten more mintues passed. They kept talking and Jack glanced at the door and the time. No loud footsteps or laughing, or other arguing or nose. No boys.

Ten more mintues passed and Tim started to collect his things, still no boys.

Five minutes after Tim left and no boys, Jack grabbed his coat as his stern face turned sterner (if it could) and he grabbed his coat to head out. He couldn't even trust them to go to the corner.


	16. Chapter 16

It was a nice afternoon to get some air as The Gangreen Gang had a whole ten dollars to their name with a misson in mind for it. They planned to take their time of course, dragging their feet and griping about this and that, and of course took a moment to kick a wayward kickball farther down the street causing some poor kid to keep running after it like an idiot. It was a small laugh but they all needed it.

Coming upon the cornerstore was when they really started talking about the matter at hand; the money was still deep in Billys pocket.

"Okay big guy, we're almost there. Gimme the money." Ace said ans held out his hand as they walked, but no money came into his hand. "'Ey big guy, ya'hear me?"

"Yeah, boss. I hear ya'. But Mr. Jack said I get to hold it."

"'Mistah Jack'," Ace scuffed at the title "ain't here. 'Sides someone's gotta do the math that comes with it. Yaknow figurin' out all them extra numbahs they put on store-buyin' things an' what not."

Never had a threat of math put money in his hand so fast.

"Thanks, big bug." He smiled as he put the ten dollars into his jacket pocket and they headed into the store.

Coming up the way they did, did passing an alley that lead to the backdoor of the store, Ace spotted a large, round green-skinned man with pants that barely fit and he had to pause and hike them up as he unloaded a truck full of Cola Soda going in on a dolly. Right away he made a b-line for the truck and the others followed.

Normally, they'd wait until rhe delivery guy was doing something in the store, like he stopped to get a coffee in between loads, and then rob the truck of as much they could. So everyone was surprised when Ace kept walking before the big goo-bag was in the store.

"Hey, Acess-" Snake tried to get Aces attention to it, but he got cut off.

"Quiet. Lemme do the talkin'." He whispered back in a harsh tone and approched the back of the truck as the deliverer was getting a dolly ready to go in.

"'Ey, Uncle Ky." He announced loud enough to make the man nearly drop his unlit cigar.

"Wha'? Who the hell are you?" His yellow eyes squinted a bit.

"Its me Ace." He paused and gtting no reply went on, "Yaknow Benny and Cassandra's boy?"

"...oh, right," he turned back to his dolly and hiked it up on its' back two wheels to roll it down the ramp. "Damn fuckin' hairless ape." He grumbled, word for word this was a whole racial slur rather than meant as a number of offending words.

"Hey-" Snake raised a finger to speak up, not exactly offended but it wasn't cool to their familes. But Ace quieted him with an elbow to his ribcage and Snakes hand went down again.

"So wha'da'ya want kid?" The man coughed as the dolly rolled down and passed the gang who surrounded one side of the ramp.

"Well, I couldn't help but notice you got all this here sody-pop."

"That's all ya' want? Geez, ya coulda jus' took some." The man stopped his dolly and took a case of soda from the stack on top and dropped into Ace's arms who almost dropped it, and swayed back and forth for a second with it until he caught his balance.

"I jus' mark'em as damaged goods anyway. Say they fell offah truck."

"That'sss what everyone sssays though." Snake said, worried no one would believe it. But Lil' Arthro was already opening the case, and the rest of the gang was walking away.

"Thanks, Unc." Ace called.

Yeah Thanks, mistar," Billy was all smiles again as they headed out of the alley and around to the front of the store.

Ace didn't think that would actually work, just asking like that. He started laughing, if it was that easy they probably wouldn't have stolen from the store so much. Just walk in and ask. The others were excited and started getting sodas out of the case and they all had a laugh.

But the laugh faded as three, tint shadows overcame them.


	17. Chapter 17

For a single second the world stood still as the whole gang processed that they had no where to go. In front of them were tiny terrories, behind them was an alley with a soda truck blocking most of it, the driver of which was dealing with something inside. Ace held on to the open case of soda, but Athuro dropped his can. Surprisingly it didn't break open, but you can hear the can slowly roll over and stop at Buttercups' tiny foot. A beat of sweat came from Billy and thats what restarted the world.

"Stealing already boys?" Blossom asked.

"Didn't we just stop you the other day from trouble?" Bubbles asked.

"Who cares!" Buttercup cried, "lets kick some butt!"

"Look girls, ya' really got it wrong this t-" before Ace could finish one of his excuses, he felt an all too familiar fist to his jaw that broke already broken teeth and knocked out another that was loose. This was just the beginning.

There was a rhythm to how they were beat up normally. Someone got thrown somewhere, punches to the gut always happened. Ace always had teeth broken and bleed from his mouth a bit. A few times Grubber would be knocked unconscious, he actually could take hits to his body pretty well having such a jelly-like structure, but hits to the head were always. This part they actually got used to, it was the aftermath that hurt worse, laying there in pain possibly for hours until it subsides, or the copper showed up. Still, Ace got a kick to his kidney, Snake got thrown into Billy and just as Billy was going to be dropped kicked into a wall and most of the gang was bleeding, and sticky from soda came a bark.

"'EY WHAT THE HELL YOU PUNKS DOIN'?!" The voice came from what was a bear of a green man, compared to the girls, brandishing a bat in defense. Buttercup dropped Billy on the ground.

"Stand back citizen." Blossom said calmly floating to the ground before him. "These are criminals and were experienced crime fighters. So there's no need for you to try and help."

"Yeah, we got this." Buttercup nodded.

"'HELP'?! you punks almost killed my nephew an' his punk friends- wha'd are ya'? Some kind'a girlie gang inah truff war?" Uncle Ky asked as he rsised a brow, still holding his bat high.

"'Gang'?" Bubbles giggled "now we're the Powerpuff Girls, we fight crime, duh."

"Powerpuff? We ain't got no powder-puff nothin' in Citiesville." He then mumbled under his breath, "I warned my sistah about lettin' that hairless ape mov'er to some lawless town like this.- Even the kids is dangerous." He had lowered his bat slightly by now. "Now you get the hell outta here." He pointed the bat at the girls.

"But-" Bubbles said.

"Get! 'fore I figure out who your folks are an' tell'em whacha did ta' my nephew." With the bat being thrusted at them one more time in defense, the girls had no choice. Or at least Blossom stopped Buttercup from punching him, they hung their heads and flew away.

Once they were gone the delivery driver walked over to the pile of groaning kids, kicked one with his foot until he sae eyes open, and one of them could at least make eye contact, before he walked off back to his truck with a sechdule to keep.

At the time it was only maybe a half-an-hour after the boys left, and Jack was still talking with Tim about an educational plan. It'd be sometime before he worried enough to go look and see what his punks had gotten into. The store clerk didn't even become aware of the semi-conscious gang until almost an hour later. Even then he debated calling someone because the gang had previously enjoyed tying him up and tormening his store, with stealing from it and vandaling it inside and out. He also waited because normally the gang would slowly slink off, threatening to come back ans mess up his store if he called 911. And the owner had to agree, who could afford those bills?

So Snake was surprised when he opened his eyes and was almost blinded by white light. For a second, he thought he died until he heard a doctor being paged over a loud speaker and cursed under his breath as he sat up in q hospital bed. Just that motion gave him a head rush, but there was no one in the room telling him not to do it. Not even a sexy nurse, just his luck. Instead he gt his dad who jumped awake from a chair.

"Hey kid, you okay?" He asked, as he paid more attention to his hands that he removed and placed back in his pocket.

"Wha'? Yeah jussst sssore. Wgat are you doin' here? You don't do doctorsss." Snake held his head, much more concerned now,or trying to be if parents actually got called. It wasn't so bad for him, Mom probably wouldnt show up, and Ace's parents weren't that annoying. Mama Billy wasn't one you wanted to mess with though.

"S-s-so? You think that's gonna stop me from makin' sure my one uh my neolates* is alive?"

"Dad, i'm you're _only_ neolate- and I'm not ah neolate I'm sixteen."

"Right right.." he looked around the empty, poorly kept hospital room and Snake followed hiseyes for a few seconds they looked at nothing but the wall before he snapped back into a thought.

"I'll take my thanks for findin' you guys passed out an'-"

"Wait wheresss the rest of the guys?"

The younger Jack shrugged as he got up from his chair. "Other rooms? I-I dunno. I jus'know that Wednesday's pissed s-s-so, yaknow- good luck."

And Snake watched his dad speed for the door like a teenager caught smoking in the boys room. Snake got a better look around the hospital then, his room was probably closet sized and he was just on a twin sized bed with an IV pole. Everything looked way more outdated than Townsville hospital. He worried about that for only a second before he saw he was basically naked in a paper dress.

*AN: "neolate" is a term for newly born, but far from hatched, snake. A reference to Snake's nickname


	18. Chapter 18

The following chapter is rated T+ for swearing and light child abuse.

When Ace woke up and saw he was able to stare at the ceiling through sore eyes, without darkness blocking them, he knew something was wrong. Everything hurt, more so than normal. Sitting up was the longest five seconds of his life, slow as he was to do so it still made things a little fuzzy for a second as if his head still felt rushed.

"Stupid brains..." he mumbled to himself as he carefully swung his stiff legs over one side of the bed on to the floor, then he pulled them back up as his bare feet touched cold tile.

It gave him a moment to take in the closet-sized room hed been laid in a cheap cot in, it was all around wood paneling and bare of anything else. Even a window, it was literally a closet.

Ace wasn't too surprised by this, especially once he noticed the IV in his arm, feeding him a nice steady drip into his vains. He looked up at the pole and thanked whatever God a person can belive in (personally he was a follower of Dyntos, God of Snacks. Just as long as his parents didn't find out.) When he saw it was a mobile IV pole, those were a bit cheaper than the ones that hooked up to bed.

Ace looked at the tile and once again braced himself to stand, perparing one hand on the back of his stupid paper dress to keep it shut, and just as he got his feet adjusted to the ground the biggest waste of his time entered the room.

"ACE DONALD COPULAR!"

'Oh crap' Ace thought, thinking words he could rarely say aloud. 'Why them? Why now? And why the hell did Grandpa have to be named Donald an' then give'em a free pass to reuse that dumb name?'

Ace's deep thought was cut short as a pointed, dark and hair Italian man entered in a nearly traditional white tank-top and chain, hair sticking out all over. The woman next to him, with green skin, had nearly a whole can of hairspray in her own dark, foot-high hairdo, the smell got worse as she tip-toed closer in her high heels. Both of those things gave her an average height of five-foot-seven-inches.

"Where the hell have you been?!" His dad started, Ace opened his mouth to defend himself,but his dad went on and Ace just quietly smiled and waited. "I bet he was out all week thode friends of his! That big idiot an the weird one!"

"You had friends just like tha at his age!" Mom defended and Ace started the count-down, five.

"Me?!" Dad replied, "he clearly takes after your family!"

Four, Ace counted.

"You're kidding! I'm not the one with a druggie for ah fathah an' ah grandfather who died in jail!"

"He was framed! Besides, Ace is gonna end up there anyway!"

"My brother was right about you!"

Two, Ace counted.

"The man cant even hold down a job!"

That was it. The subject totally changed, Ace quietly stood, keeping one hand on the back of his outfit, his free hand on his IV pole and a foot on the pole's feet before he pushed off and slipped away as his parents fighting went on. He glided into the hallway, paused to look both ways before going left. He intended to follow the poorly made signs on wood hung on the walls to the children's ward, since most of the gang wasn't over sixteen and too young for the other sections of the hospital. But he stopped short and backed himself up when he found the small room Snake was in, still getting up.

"Hey, Dingleberry." Ace started with a smirk. It got Snakes attention right away.

"Don't call me that, man! It'ssssss 'Ingleberry', man. 'Ingleberry'." He grumbled as he stood up and came over holding his own outfit closed.

"Whattsss with you anywayss?"

"Dunno, ain't found a doctah, damn unfundin', don't care. Lets go find the othahs."

They stared down the hall once more before Snake talked again. "Your folkss here?"

"Yeah. Annoyin'. Yours?"

"Popsss is. Dunno about Mom yet...you don't think they call all the parents, yeah Ace?"

"Don't be stupid, Dingel. Lil' Arthuro's mom dont got time an' good luck proven Grubber's even got'em, an' Billy-" he stopped himself short. "-we gotta find the big guy." Ace sped up his IV pole as they continued down halls of outdated,cheap, woodn paneling and cracked titles to the section marked with doors covered in smiley faces that were hand-painted by mental patients of the last few generations. (they got a lot of free labor that way until an '80s law that passed giving stricter guidlines to having Monster Americans committed and their care in general. It was part of a bunch of scandals at the time that left hospitals underfunded and now understaffed.)

Ace entered the Children's ward (the the actual sign was more faded and read "child 'S ward") with Snake grabbing open the double doors, then they headed left where the ceilings got much higher and hallways much larger, the doorways could comfortably fit two or four people standing side-by-side, and the two could easily look through to everyroom as they walked past most where quiet and empty since you don't often see big guys like Billy so far from home. But with the ceilings being so high and sound carrying much easier. They figured they'd find him in no time. They passed one more room before coming to end of the hall and having to make a turn. Neither one was shocked at still not having found any staff, Snake bet the place probably only had three doctors on staff and two nurses,and one was probably sleeping somewhere in an unused room. So the two were about to debate which way to turn when a carrying voice answered for them from a room on the right.

"I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU SAY AS LONG AS YOUR UNDER MY ROOF YOU LIVE BY MY RULES!" The voice boomed loud enough it shook windows and Ace nearly slipped from his IV pole as it rolled away from him. Luvkily Snake caught it and the two weren't even considered about their backsides showing as they pressed on.

If a person who didn't know'em thought Big Billy was scary- his mother had Billy's big-ness and a bark to match. Of note on her massive Green body was a large collection of shoddy gold rings, many of them with large, painful jewels of all colors and the worst offered was a wedding ring (though no one ever saw a husband, not even Billy) that looked likw two rings fused together and formed a massive religious symbol that related to one of the many factions of Christianity related to kanji and other Monster-Americans, but of which Ace (being raised manly Catholic, or Kanji Catholic if Uncle Ky had a say in it) and Snake (who Choose to observe basics of Shintoism that his father attempted to remember and keep for superstitious reasons) Weren't a hunderd precent sure what it was.

The two peeked in the room fron one side of the doorway and saw that big hand raised, and the big guy just sitting on his bed, It seems the worst he got was a few stitches along his buttom lip.

Their heads took over one half of the doorway, the other half was being taken up now by a smaller green head and a mpre akward shaped one, all four of them just watched the hand with its' large, shiny, ring as it caught some light on it. Then it came down in a flash on to a mess of red hair that covered the back of Billy's head. Big guy only let out the tiniest whimper as all four mouths just hung open ever so slightly.

They may be loud, or annoying, or busy, or just honestly not good at the whole parenting thing, but none of the gang ever thought they'd do that! Certainly not to the big. All four sets of eyebrows became knitted together as they stepped forward.

"Ey!" Shouted the shortest voice that the woman (if she could be called that) had to look the farthest downward to see. By the time here eyes were even near Lil' Arutro was, she had his teeth embedded into her leg, and comb-teeth attempting to be embedded into her upper tigh. He bit deep enough by the time he got pulled off, some blood was slowly dripping out.

A large square hand had him by the scruff of his neck, unamused, Wednesday set him down back with Ace and others. He looked to them, then Billy, then , who was grumbling and grabbing a wetnap from her purse.

"William," Jack spoke, "go with the others to the rec. Room down the hall."

"-And just who are you to tell my boy what to do?" Ms. Williams spoke up.

"This conversation can wait since you have been so infrequent to get a hold of.- William." Jack repeated to get the bigger, green boys attention. He jolted a bit. But stood up this time to go. Without a word he followed after the other boys.

"Why'd you do that?" Billy asked Lil' Arutro, who was still getting the taste of old whore out of his mouth.

"Ey, you dont mess with one of the Gangreen Gang, without messin with all of us."

"Pfft." Grubber agreed, and added "ftt-puut."

"Oh Yeah. They got an old video game in the room." Snake said. The hospital signs boasted color t.v. and "Ping" from its' hayday.


	19. Chapter 19

At some point, some form of staff should've probably been concerned over the monotone, gruff voice that was haranguing through the halls and thin walls of this cheap,rundown hospital. Snake knew such staff exsisted as thet passed an unoccupied dark room where a green-skinned, male nurse in scrubs was passed out in the bed as they made their way to a rec. Room in the childrens ward to see if they had any good games. But the nurse, who clearly could still hear the lecture of Jack Wednesday, simply rolled over and planted a pillow on his head to get a few seconds of sleep on his twenty-hour shift. So Snake figured they werent too conerned and shrugged it off as thr gang moved forward. Most of them having to hold the paper gowns they wore closed (aside for Big Billy who thankfully had pants on under his), Snake walked a few steps faster to catch back up with them.

"How many times ah gotta tell Ya' big guy," Ace had been going on as they walked "nevah listen ta' ya' mothah."

"Yeah but she's my mama." Billy said simply.

"An' she sucks at bein' that. She don't know nothin' about doin' good at her job, big guy. Most of'em don't, alright?"

"Yeah, okay Ace. You're smart."

"You know darn well I am." Ace nodded as they rounded the corner into the recreational room.

Like the other rooms in the hospital it was musty with wood paneling, the only difference being worn and overused once-gray carpet on the ground. Along the walls were all kinds of old toys, games, books even comics. Most of it sunfaded, or wrecked beyound identification. The crown jewel of the room, surrounded by beanbag chairs, was an old chestnut box with a gray screen and nearby was it's main attraction: an old, massive grayer box, hooked to smaller gray boxes with a swtich and one single knob- The Megavoice Journey. But as the gang approached the game system to watch whoever of the group got there first square off in pixelated combat (and to seat themselves in surrounding beanbag chairs), smiles fell as two tiny dents made themselves known in the chairs. This was an issue, but Ace just kept smiling as he pushed himself to standing over the chairs, thous over two small, lime-colored Boys in arm casts, matching from some stupid stunt the gang didn't care about. Slowly, Ace crept up behind them. Little kids in Townsville were easy, one jump and they'd be gone from Ace's face and they'd run screaming, allowing them to takwe over whatever the kids had left behind. Ace knew this outcome well and expected it, as did the others. Though by now Billy and Arturo had become more interested in the comics on the shelves- just as dated as the hospital it was a team of diverse monster kids who lived in some big city and dealt with issues kids faced in the 1970s. The comic was actually still in print, but still felt like the 1970s despite being modern. The comic was simply named; Fangnlane. In reference to the main characters uncommon lastname of "Fangnfur", and the street the comic mainly took place on, as it reused outside backgrounds a lot.

"'Ey it's the one where Bobby's cousin Verminson moves in." Arutho noted on the cover as he sat down, "the first time. And they hadn't killed off Ol' Mr. hellistein yet."

Big Billy sat next to Arturo on the floor, causing the smaller youth to bounce for a moment.

"The puppet man? I like him." Billy smiled and looked over Arturos shoulder to read with him.

"Yeah-yeah, he had all those puppets." Arturo nodded.

"He's still got'em on tv." Billy smiled as he liked the tv specials based off the comics much better. They ranged from holiday, to educational, or both.

"But you can't see his tattoo on the t.v." billy gestured to his inner forearm where the tattoo was, "just his shirt sleeve. How com?" Arturo frowned as Billy did. In no way wanting to get to that history. But Grubber had over heard as he found some crossword puzzles and had to open his mouth;

"Ph-pf! Pbbpppbbbbbppt, Pbbbppt. Pbb-pbbt-phhhhf."

Billy frowned a little more in confusion at the bigger words and why bad guys would do something nice like give you a cool tattoo, but he just nodded at the answer. Thankfully, the screams of little kids pulled thr groups attention back together and zoomed passed them. Sure enough, Ace and Snakes laughter followed, Arturo laughed at the kids running by with Grubber and Billy laughed because everyone was. Ace abs Snake took the beanbag chairs and the controllers (if the primitive bricks could be called that), unaware that they ran in fear of Ace's morning-breath and were shocked by his slightly rotted, mostly broken teeth. There's a reason he only had two full fangs in comparison to others. The two looked at the overlay left on the tv screen and saw the boys had been playing "Hockey", as two dots bounced another back and fourth between them trying to "score goals". There wasn't even a point system so one of them would have to keep score, which also meant down the road it was easier to lie if one of them forgot.

Grubber returned to his puzzle, Ace and Snake started the game with terrible sounds coming from the tv, and Lil' Arturo and Big Billy returned to the comics they were enjoying before.

"Which one ah these is my guy?" Ace asked, as it took him a second to move the controller's knob. It was a little hard to see the dim screen in the daylight.

"Uuh, lettts ssssee.." Snake mumbled, "okay yours isss right, mine'ssss left." He moved his knob back and fourth as the controllers got tangled up.

"Pbbbt?" Grubber asked as he settled into a chair on the side.

"Huh-what?" Ace asked, "ah dunno, ah dunno no five lettah- hey, Lil' Arturo, you got any five lettah words for uh-"

"Pbbbt."

"Yeah, what Grubbah said. 'M busy here beatin' Snake at this game."

"Wha'? Somethin long an hard? Man, I dunno it sounds like ah-"

"Phf." Grubber cut him off.

"It's not? Fine...uhh, guess ah "finger"? Lemme look at this now." Arturo waved off his friend as he had settled into Billy's, well, big stomach to read, he was still a little sore there. But it let them both see the pages.

"Maybe I know." Billy piped up raising his hand for a moment before he lowered it to think. His eyes fell on a comic panel that showed the pretty girl Julie with a flower, she was prefect with her prefectly deep green skin, fangs sharpened daily, and her hair nice and shiny. She was really nice and pretty and made Billy smile when the comic showed her without her boyfriend Big Biff.

"Is it ah 'poppy'? Those are pretty an' long."

"...it isss five letterssss long. But I ssttil think it's more like ah di-" a punch to Snake's arm quieted him as Ace watched Billy frown out of the corner of his eye.

"It is five lettahs though." Ace said.

"Pphf." Grubber filled it in without a second thought, and figured he could put the right answer later.

For a single moment they could forget they didn't have their proper clothes on, or that Ace had trouble focusing on which dot in this peice a junk was his, they could just relax and hang out, finally. Of course it couldn't last long, but neither of the gang noticed the familiar yelling of Jack Wednesday had stopped. Or the thin figure who appeared and was lazily watching half of what just happened.

I apologize for the length and lateness of this chapter, a power outage last week made it too cold to write for a few days. But its back on now and i figured everyone wouldn't mind a little of the gang doing nothing. Actual plot will happen next time


	20. Chapter 20

The figure standing in the hospitals' rec. Room doorway soon strolled in totally unnoticed by the group until he cleared his throat and slowly walked in.  
"This place sssstill looks s-shit." Mononoke mumbled to a roomful that he had to remind himself was probably only half as full as he saw it.  
Snake moved his head, and peeked over the top of the beanbag chair. Arturo tried to just read his comic, or pretended to do so and kept one eye on the skinny homeless bum before him.  
"Hey, what are you doin' here, Dad?" Snake asked, the man shrugged.  
"Jus-s-st lookin' around. Place hasnt changed."  
"You ssstayed here?"  
"Wha-? Y-yeah, different ward in Uh, '83. but- uh- umm. Wha-wha'cha got there?"  
"Juussst kickin' Ace's butt." Snake smiled and half-expected a punch to his arm as Ace was still in his beanbag chair, but now resting his head back and staring up at the ceiling. He'd been loosely holding on to the controller since a nurse came and replaced his IV. But he was still alive, just got the good stuff, and was finally getting some actual sleep. He just had the controller limp in his hands resting on his lap. A pretty uncommon sight the rest of the fan chose to treat as common for the sake of their own activities, in regular sleep Ace was hardly as relaxed.  
He chuckled as he assumed he scored another goal and his dad came to stand behind the beanbag chair. By now he felt a little odd, getting a stink-eye from at least the little one he could feel watching him.  
"Pretty cool." He mumbled trying to brush off Arturo's gaze. It probably wasn't real.  
"You're tellin' me."  
"There's not even a score board, you won't have proof." Arturo said form his comic, as Billy turned the page for him. Which put a hole in Mononoke's theory- the things he saw, such as the red giant in the corner with it's sharp teeth, didn't speak.  
"There'sss one up here, man." Snake pointed at his forehead before trying to return to the screen of three 8-bit lights. He could almost hear his dad shuffling from foot-to-foot behind him, and the long Jacket russling, and finally the lighter.  
"Thought you ssssaid you ssstopped." Snake said without looking up as cigarette smiled filled the room and got the others attention.  
"An-annn' you sssaid you was livin' with your ma. An' she sssaid it too. S-so we's all lyin' here."  
"Hey no smoking." The little green giant piped up, covering his nose a bit.  
"What?"  
"Not supposed to smoke in the hospital." Billy nodded. "Also 's nasty."  
"...thats only in rooms w-with the signs." Mononoke said taking a relaxing drag off the cancer stick in order to stop shaking before he bent down to put it out on the buttom of his shoe.  
"You kids know where Wednesday went?"  
"No, but he stopped yellin' ah half-hour ago, ." Arturo answered.  
"Jus' 'bum' is fine, ankle-biter." Monooke chuckled just a bit, trying to lighten the mood just a bit.  
"How'd you hear about that?"  
The joke being lost, the man just shrugged, turning back to Snake. "You gotta sec f-fffrom beatin' your friend there for ah- a chat?"  
"What'sss up?" Snake asked as he made note of another goal in his head. His dad rubbed his chin an a nerves habbit since he could no longer smoke. If it had been fully up to him he would've done something like this a while ago.  
"Uh- it'sssss, yaknow, important stuff, erm-in the hall?"  
Snake glanced back to the game, then at the unconscious Ace with a bit of drool yo-yoing from his mouth but never falling on anything or letting go fully from his lip. So,Snake carefully turned the knob of his controller to aline his on-screen paddle with Ace's causing the "puck" to just bounce back and fourth between the two until he got back, and he sllaow slithered after his dad. Allowing Arutho and Billy to return to their comic, and Grubber crosssword puzzle. However just as the room returned o quitet, aside for video game sounds. Two Mor figures either the room.  
Mr. And Mrs. Copular clearly weren't pleased, Billy was sure could spit fire if humans could do that, he wanted to leave the room, but Lil' Artruo was still on him and He seemed to have no intent of moving any time soon, secretly enjoying some of the drama that was more interesting than the comic.

The human minority (for once) scanned the room until he saw the familiar dark hairline of his son, only it didn't look as greasy as normal. He would've noticed if he wasnt so angry.  
"I told you he was probably here. Ya know he gets this laziness from your side of the family." The wife piped up, still focused on the argument they started an hour ago.  
"Not this again- Ace, wake up!"  
Ace didn't move but a sleeping twitch at his father's command. It was at that cue that lead Grubber to stand with his crossword, Lil' Arturo with the comic, and Billy- and all three attempted to sneak from the room, carefully as they could.  
The arguing actually got louder as they got farther from the room. With emotions their voices got twice as loud and carried twice as far, not helped that they passed more yelling as they walk. Upon seeing Snake actually yelling at his dad, who seemed awkwardly slumped over like a waiting old dog, Billy let out a whimper- or maybe it was a growl from his stomach.  
"Ppffft-pbbt." Grubber piped up.  
"Yeah, let's go see if they got some pizza here." Lil' Arturo nodded, feeling proudly in charge for once as the three of them kept going down the hall towards a cafeteria. As they left the Child S Ward the yelling was worse and worse. Slowly Ace slowly sat straight-up with his hands between his knees and his eyes opening slowly just enough to look between one yelling parent to the other, he sucked in his drool.  
"Will yah boths SHUDDUP?!"  
And for once second in his life, they actually listened, stopped dead and stared at him.


	21. Chapter 21

The older of the lizard-like creatures leaned against the panels on the wall, half tired and waiting until Snake stopped yelling. He guessed it was understandable, you're used to certain freedoms, a certain way of life, then someone comes and snaps back a chain yanking you back to do thinks you don't want to do, even if its in your best interest.

Finally Snake huffed and folded his arms over his chest.  
"You done?" His dad asked, lazily.  
"MAYBE!" Snake just huffed again, and let himself lean against the wall, feeling surprisingly hot he let himself sort of slide down the wall to half seat. Not caring how much of the hall they took up. It was quiet again for a while until his dad ran a hand through his hair and noted, as if a part of a totally different conversation;  
"...You're greener then normal."  
"What'sss that have ta' do with anything?"  
"It-It's healthier. Yaknow? Probably eatting better."  
"...eatting more often I guessss." Snake shrugged. "You really didn't agree with Wednesday did'cha?"  
"...I did." He nodded slowly. "Yaknow why?"  
"...'cuzzz youre off your meds and tired of dealing with me sssso youre leaving me in the hands of an even crazier old bastard?"  
"...well, I am uh-off my meds a little- you don't worry about that!" The man rubbed his neck now as he sighed "but,neolate, ...I'm 27. Most of your buddies' p-parents are probably...maybe twice my age and from what I hear they suck worse at this somehow. I'm probably not goin' to- Ya know get better at it- Gods only know what your mother is up to- so-so yeah I sighed over my rights...doesnt mean I won't Ya know-come around some timessss..." he was glancing in the corner at nothing again.  
"Doesssss it mean you're gonna go back on your meds?" Snake mumbled. It wasn't something they really talked about and before he could get an answer both men heard a "Will ya both shut up?!" Coming from somewhere nd both promptly closed their mouths for a second in a strange silence.  
Ace somewhat attempted to huff as he attempted to stand with his IV for support. Whatever they put in the bag certainly made things feel nice and cloudy so it was difficult for him to keep his anger.  
"Let's just agree both ah your familes equally suck, alright?" He tried to adress both his parents in the proper angry tone, both of them at least actaully shut up.  
"Ace you need to relax-" his mother started.  
"Cassandra, the boy has to learn to deal with his mistakes."  
"He's already banged and bruised like theres no torrow. What else does he gotta learn?"  
"That his actions have consequences!"  
"Like you know about learnin' from your actions!"  
"I know about facing my consequences!"  
The exact words as the topic changed once again were lost on Ace's still clouded mind. Swaying a bit he skirted himslef around his parents and anything left out in the room to leave. Noticing the greens in the hall he took a shot in the dark, not really paying attention.  
"'Ey Dingle."  
"It'sssss Ingle," Snake hissed angerly.  
"Yeah-Yeah...im findin' food. You comin'?"  
"Inna mintue."  
"Mkay. You seen Billy or Grubber?"  
"I think they already went down there."  
"...okay..." And he slowly continued down the hall. Through total luck he followed the smell of food to find a larger paneled room, like the others, liked with ragtag dining chairs and tables. He took a moment to glance around and stopped the big square he was looking for. Billy, Grubber and Lil' Arturo had already helpped themselves to some food. Mostly they had sandwiches, and soups. But Ace just flopped down into the chair with suddenly no interest in eating. He just closed his eyes once again, only opening them when a loud thoary clearing sent a slight fear through him. Slowly he picked his head up and faced Jack Wednesdays' unchanging cold expression. His eyes glanced down at the table in front of Ace and Ace slowly turned his head to face it. Sitting there, folded like new was his sunglasses. He raised a hand and limply applied them to his face. His eyes almost instantly felt better as darkness fell over them, he had laid his head back on his chair.  
"...hey Wednesday..."

His voice got everyone's attention, but Ace didn't notice with his eyes closed.

"Yes, Ace?" Not getting an answer seconds later he asked, "what is it?"  
"...Thanks for not bein' ah parent...they suck..."  
No one said a word, Grubber was sure it was from whatever painkiller he was on. It sent some worry among the group as they heard it, like some admit of defeat. But it had pros too. They'd have to talk about it when everyone was clear-headed. Wednesday was also quiet as he wasn't sure if it was a compliment, or if he should be more angry at the things that were formally parents. But in that moment all he could do was clutch the paper Jack Mononoke signed in his pocket, and quietly eat until Snake joined them. It was the quietest lunch they'd ever have.


	22. Chapter 22

After such strange words from their leader, the rest of them weren't really sure what to think. They agreed with his parent's sucking policy, but weren't sure where he now stood on Wednesday. He was a jerk, what kind of guy thinks they can fully tell them what to do? But also he's an idiot since he clearly expected them to follow his word more often that they did. Even with certain punishments to keep them in line. Snae having gotten to the table late, only heard it secondhand as he ate sandwich. But they didn't have much time to form a group opinion, as, almost thankfully, visiting hours were over. So not only did Wednesday have to leave, but it was suggested by a nurse the kids return to their rooms, or at least the wards they were supposed to be in.

So Ace and Snake walked alone down the hall to leave the children's ward. For a few seconds the only sound was feet on tile, and the IV pole starting to squeak slightly. It got squeakier, and squeaker, or maybe it was in Snake's head. Either way after a while, he had to say something.  
"Hey, Ace?"  
"What?"  
"You really say that about Wednesday?"  
"I dunno, man. What's it mattah if I did?"  
"Nothin', jusssst don't seem like you that'sss all." Snake shrugged, his room was coming up so he quietly veered off into it. And soon the only sound was a single set of footsteps and squeaking, tiny wheels. It only stopped when Ace found his bed from before and flopped down on the somewhat hard mattress face first.

Back in the much-more shared ward, Grubber was a little uneasy, more so than then he was from the normal bumps and bruises. He figured they'd probably only be kept over-night, but then what? With everything going how it was he doubted they'd be allowed out in the world with just themselves again, he wasn't going to be the one to say he liked that idea honestly. At least they had a warm place to sleep and good food. He could put up with a few annoying rules for that. He knew if he admitted that though, it probably wouldn't turn out too good. Even if the others came to that conclusion on their own, they're the gangreen gang, they normally didn't take orders. Not that anyone, normally cared. Those who did normally weren't the best people, he figured maybe Wednesday was the best they'd get.

It took a while for everyone to get some sleep in a place like this, it still made sounds like any other hospital, in fact probably more than the boys had heard all day actually being woken up by feet in the hall of doctors or nurse muttering too loud before falling back asleep.

Jack came home and heard his apartment was the quietest it'd been at this hour, but even with the quiet it'd didnt stop him. He started his night with coffee and the phone book to get to work. Those Powerpuff Princesses would pay.

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Just a quick update to sy updates will be coming sooner and I wrote a thing on a different site, don't have to buy it but check it out if you like on amazon. just add the following to amazon dot com / dp/B01MZ5ZG35


	23. Chapter 23

"Let's go, boys!" Was what easily carried through the apartment everyday now at 8:05Am. After Wednesday had attempted to wake them from their bedroom door at 8 o'clock. Breakfast had started by then in the kitchen and that's always what got them going, though Wednesday quietly noted they rose a little faster each day, mainly to take over the bathroom.  
Today the first one out was the quietest steps, so Wemsedsy knew it was Grubber who got up first today, wether or not he'd actaully get to the bathroom first though, was still up for grabs. With the help of extra doctor appoints in the past week, Grubber stood a little taller, o far at least his back was straight and his neck could hold his head up high. Though, finding clothes in his size was still a challenge, but he still seemed comfortable in his old outfit. Then he heard louder steps coming after Grubber.  
"Ace, no running!" Jack called from the stove, but slowly stepped away from his eggs to go into a nearby cabinet above the sink  
"°ah wasn't this time, Jus'-"  
"No slidin' either, c'mon." Jack carefully pulled out a little yellow bottle, one of five or so collected and locked up there. He heard the grumbling and footsteps come closer as Moe joined the bathroom.  
Ace stood in the kitchen doorway in yesterdays, clothes, his hands crossed over his chest with a little pout. But his skin was a much more healthy yellow tone (yellow was only a healthier tone for those like Ace, a deeper green was actually more common throughout the world in monsters). But his smile still needed some teeth looked at, not that he was smiling as he watched Wednesday get the pill and a glass of water out of the bottle.  
"Ya'know we could jus' say ah took'em..." Ace tried to say with a sly, that faded against Wensesays unchanging steely gaze.  
"You know it's the doctors orders, Ace."  
"Those shouldn't count on Saturday-" he mumbled under his breath, but he took the tiny pill and water, downing it before grumbling and returning to what was a line for the bathroom at this point. Even with most of the time they had two or three doing something in there at once.  
It'd been a solid week since the hospital, and solid week of the boys being on a bit of a shoe leash. If not with Wensesay they were normally with Tim, and vice versa. The guy didn't let up for some reason, more so than before. But frankly, for the most part there wasn't as much complaining, the occasional grumbling as Ace did sure, but nothing like purposely wandering off and getting in trouble. Heck, Tim even reported that they actaully started doing their school work on Thursday. Jack wasn't sure if the boys themselves actually noticed the changes, phyically or emotionally. He even caught them once getting a snack and not leaving the kitchen a complete mess. They at least tried to get the peanut butter off the ceiling. One by one, as eggs hit plates, they filed in. Firstly Sandord, who'd been slightly quieter the past few days, but the color of his eyes became a brighter, healthier red thanks to his diet and some eye drops. Jack handed him a small pill as he passed and Sanford took it with his first bite of eggs.  
Ace came in, his shirt was smoothed out and Jack was sure he would have been first if he hadn't stopped to inspect a few new moles on his face (normal at his age).  
William was next,he actually tried to comb his hair today. He got some medicine In liquid form since he refused to take pills, but he wouldn't need it if he'd drink his orange juice.  
Surpingly, all Grubber needed to take was a multi-vitamin.  
"Thank you." He said, his voice now softer and a little higher.  
"You're welcome, Grubber."  
Lil' Arthuro shuffled in last, and with a yawn, still went right for the coffee pot.  
"It's decafe." Jack said simply, stopping the tiny hand from reaching for it, and going to the table grumbling.  
"Hey it'ssss Saturday, what are we doin' today, Ace?" Snake asked between bites, and quickly stopped asking as his voice cracked into a deeper tone on his 's' sound. Ace was lazily stabbing at his, as he at at the other side of the table. "Dunno- 'ey Wednesday, we got anything planned?"  
"Just one stop, but if you behave weMay stop and doing something fun-" Jack paused for the expected cheers or grunts of joy in the teens. "-And I want to thank you for actually doing the homework left for you this past week."

"Told ya' we'd do it!"  
"Yes, Arturo, it seems you were right." Jack nodded  
"What are we gonna do?" Billy asked, starting to bounce a bit in his seat. It shook the other seats near him a bit.  
"You'll see once we get the first thing done, William. Now calm down."  
"Sorry..."  
"It's alright." And he addressed the table again, "I expect you all on your best behavior for this."  
"No problem, Wensesay. We can do that right guys?"  
"I mean it, Ace."  
"An' so do we." Ace smiled, but Wenseday knew not to fully trust it.

After breakfast and everyone washed up, Jack grabbed his coat, hat and a little rectangular package under his arm, the boys got their shoes and would file out. Thankfully getting any horseplay out before they were cramped into the car.  
Things were fine, and even relaxing as the radio chatted about boring news and traffic- another kiju attack cut off part of the highway,so they had to take the long way to where ever they were going. Ace had his face leaning against the glass on the window when a box white box of a house with three front windows overcame his view. He looked up confused with this weird feeling in his put. He gave a look to the rest of the guys and most of them picked up. This place felt wrong.


End file.
